Thirteen Days
by Bastard Snow
Summary: Xander and some other people in a mall. There are lots of Zombies, too. Rated for violence/gore/adult content
1. Chapter 1

Title: Thirteen Days  
Author: Bastard Snow  
Rating: MA

Pairings: B/X, and Dawn flirting a lot.

Genre: Horror, romance, comedy, zombies (zombies are a genre)  
Story warnings: Violence, gore, bad language, sex talk, suicide, zombies, sexual assault

Summary: Zombies. A mall. Xander and some other people.

Author Notes: Thanks to Drake for the beta. Thanks to Capcom, George Romero and Zack Snyder for making Dead Rising and 2 Dawn of the Deads, respectively. Thanks to Max Brooks for writing World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which has sort of been acting as a muse for me recently.

Further Note: I've had this published on another site for ages and just plain forgot to post it here, years ago. So I'll be posting it pretty quickly. This was originally published in 2006.

Disclaimer: I own none of this. I'm not even gonna lay claim to the OCs, cuz I don't really want them.

Feedback: Yes, please.

* * *

Day One

Xander woke with a gasp.

"What is it?" Buffy asked. His gasp had pulled her fully awake – a skill she'd honed in Sunnydale.

Buffy sat up in their bed as Xander caught his breath.

"I don't know," he said. Xander sat up and turned to look at her, his hands bracing himself against the mattress, as if he expected it to fall out from under him. He looked around the room, and his eye landed on the window of the hotel room. "Listen."

"Xander, what –"Buffy started. He held up a finger, and Buffy tilted her head. She heard nothing, and said as much.

"I know," he said. "Nothing. Our room is right by the interstate."

Buffy frowned, swung her legs off the bed and padded over to the window. She flung the drapes open and looked outside. "It's empty," she said.

Xander walked over and stood behind Buffy, wrapping an arm around her midsection. Abandoned cars littered the road.

Suddenly, an 18-wheeler barreled down the highway, horn blaring. It slammed into one of the cars, sending it spinning off the road. A few people hung on to the side of the cab, and a few more grasping onto the back of the trailer.

"Okay," Buffy said. "There's definitely something weird going on."

"Yeah," said Xander. "Let's um. Let's get dressed and head out."

"We're supposed to pick up Dawn at her apartment," Buffy said.

"I know. We'll go get her and then figure out what to do. Come on, let's –"

The door to their motel room shook as something slammed up against it and then began pounding relentlessly. They moved as one, Buffy spinning around Xander and somersaulting over the bed as he reached into a bag, grabbed an axe and tossed it to her.

Buffy stood up on her tip-toes and looked through the peephole, then relaxed and tossed the axe onto the bed. She flung the door open.

"You would not believe what's going on out there," Dawn said. She rushed into room, her shirt and pants spattered with blood. She gave Buffy a quick hug and sat down on the bed, dropping her purse, her keys, an axe and a handgun. "Well, that's not true, you would, but you wouldn't believe the scale it's happening on. And don't worry, the blood isn't mine." She looked around the room. "Hi, Xander."

Xander, standing there in his boxers, waved.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked, hoping that Dawn would not notice her current state of near-nudity. While black-lace panties were very becoming on her, it was not the way she wished her sister to find out that she and her long-time best friend had finally taken that next step into –

"Oh my god, you guys are totally sleeping together!" Dawn said, as she took in their unclothed state and the fact that there was only one bed in the room. She looked at them again. "Um. I'll um. I'll go wait in the bathroom while you get dressed."

"Yeah," Xander said. "I actually think I'm going to take a shower, so… why don't I go do that… and you two can talk. Sound good? Good. Okay."

"Traitor!" Buffy called after him with a smile, as he slipped into the bathroom with a change of clothes.

Dawn and Buffy stood there looking at each other for a moment.

"Sis, as much as I love you," Dawn said, "I don't need to see your what passes for your boobs. Can you put something on?"

Buffy glared at her sister, then crawled over the bed, grabbed Xander's shirt from the night before and slid it on over her. It covered her to mid-thigh.

"Listen, Dawn," Buffy started.

Dawn waved her off. "We can get into the complete awesomeness of you and Xander being together later, and your loserishness at not telling anybody. We have bigger worries. Can I borrow one of his shirts while you're at it? I'm covered in… well, other people."

"What's going on outside?" Buffy asked, handing her sister one of Xander's clean shirts. "We saw a truck tearing down the highway with people hanging off of it."

"Probably not people," Dawn said, shaking her head. "I don't know how it happened, but… the whole town has been taken over by zombies, and we need to get the hell out of here."

"What do you mean, 'the whole town?'"

"I mean like, the whole town," Dawn said. She pulled her shirt off over her head and replaced it with Xander's. "As in pretty much everybody."

"How is that possible?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know. But they're everywhere."

Buffy shook her head. "How can this town have that many dead people?"

"It's not just the dead people. I couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like they turned people like vampires, only way faster."

"By sucking their blood?" Buffy asked.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "By biting them."

"It was a fair question, don't roll your eyes at me!" Buffy said.

"Well stop being stupid," Dawn said, sitting down on the bed. "Honestly, who the hell ever heard of a zombie that drank blood? It's all brains and flesh and moaning and groaning."

"What, because I'm all of a sudden a zombie expert? Vampire Slayer, remember? The job description says nothing about zombies."

"Whatever. Make your excuses, we all know the truth."

"Oh, and what is the truth?" Buffy asked.

Dawn grinned and leaned back on the bed. "That I'm the better sister."

Buffy pouted, sat on the bed next to her sister and laid her head on her sister's shoulder. "Are we talking 28 Days Later here?" Buffy asked.

Dawn sighed. "No, they're slower, like Night of the Living Dead."

"Lucky."

Dawn nodded and wrapped her arm around her big sister. "Yeah."

Buffy smiled. "We had sex on this bed. Beneath and above the covers."

She felt Dawn shudder. "Uncle."

"Zombies, huh?"

Dawn nodded again. "Yup."

"Sucks."

They sat silent for a moment. "Ask what you want to ask," Buffy said.

"Was Anya right?" Dawn asked.

Buffy laughed. "Did she ever lie?"

"Slut," said Dawn.

They heard the water turn off, and a minute later a clean and cleanly clothed Xander stepped out of the bathroom. Dawn and Buffy started cracking up.

"Okay," said Xander. "I'm suddenly self conscious."

Buffy hopped up off the bed, grabbed a change of clothes and kissed Xander on the way into the bathroom. "Catch him up," she said.

As Buffy turned on the hot water, she heard Dawn dissolve into a fit of giggles.

* * *

"What've we got in here?" Dawn asked.

Xander sighed. "Not a whole lot, most of it's out in the trunk. My axe, yours, Buffy's sword, half a dozen stakes – not that useful here – various crosses, holy water, your gun, a taser, a flare gun, a –"

"A flare gun?" Dawn asked.

"What?" Xander said. "That'll light a vamp up and as an added bonus, tell your sister it's time to come rescue me."

"It's true," said Buffy. "In Lebanon – Oregon, not the Middle East – Xander was cornered by a few vamps, and I didn't see it. He shot a flare right at one, and it stuck in the guy's neck. So this vamp is like running around screaming while the fire is eating into him. Well, the light and the noise caught my attention, so I run over just in time to see the vamp go up in flames."

"And the great thing was," Xander said, "the other vamps were so shocked by this guy running around with a flare in his neck, they totally forgot to kill me. And your sister came in and kicked their asses."

Buffy nodded. "It was good times. A solid third date."

Dawn rolled her eyes at them.

Xander smiled at her. "Anyway, we may not have a whole arsenal in the room, but we've got enough to make it to the car. Should be home free after that."

Dawn walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. There were half a dozen zombies in the parking lot. "Not too many in the way, either." She turned back. "Morality question: do we go out of our way to kill zombies knowing that they were innocent people? Or do we leave them alone, knowing that they could create more zombies?"

Xander rubbed his chin. "I say kill. They're dead anyway, they just haven't lay down yet, and the more we get off the… well, the more we dispose of, the fewer there are to infect the rest of the population. It's like vampires, only they can't talk to you."

"I agree," said Buffy. She hefted her backpack onto her back. "Xander, you take an axe and the keys. Your first priority is getting the car started. Dawn, you take both guns. You're the best shot here anyway."

"Only because guns scare you," Dawn said.

"It doesn't matter why. I'll bring up the rear with my sword. Dawn, you're in the back seat. Pull down one side of the seat for trunk access. We've got all sorts of goodies in there."

"Got it," said Dawn.

"We ready?" Buffy asked.

Dawn and Xander grabbed their weapons and nodded. They stood behind Buffy. She lifted her leg and kicked the door. The doorframe shattered and the door flew out into the parking lot.

Buffy stepped back. "Xander."

Xander nodded and led them out into the parking lot at a quick jog.

"Steady pace," Buffy said. "They're the slow ones, no need to rush."

"Got it," Xander said, slowing. A couple of zombies turned their way and began ambling towards them. Dawn raised a gun and fired, catching the zombie in the heart. It slowed for a moment, but continued

"Head, Dawn," Xander reminded. "Gotta take out the head."

"Right, head. Forgot," said Dawn.

"Jeez," said Buffy. "Who ever heard of a zombie that died from losing its heart?"

Dawn stuck her tongue out at her sister and shot the zombie in the head. Bits of bone and grey matter exploded from the back of its head, and the zombie fell to the ground, lifeless.

Xander stepped out and swung his axe, severing another zombie's head. The head flew a few feet and landed with a loud splat on the pavement. It cracked open, leaking brain onto the asphalt.

"Okay," Buffy said, pausing in her stride. "That was gross."

"Come on," Xander said, pointing his axe about thirty feet away. "Car's right up here."

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the car. Xander unlocked the car and they all got in. He turned the key and the engine revved to life.

"Hold on," Buffy said. She reopened her door and ran back to the motel – but not to their room.

"What is she up to?" Dawn asked.

As they watched, she kicked another door in and ran inside. A moment later she led a man and a woman out of the room, past another couple of zombies, and took them to their car. Then she ran back to the motel, kicked open another door and led another man out to his car.

Xander looked around the parking lot. There were still almost a dozen more cars.

"Hey Dawn," he said, pressing a button on the ceiling of the car and opening the sun roof. "Want some target practice?"

Dawn smiled mischievously and stood up, squeezing herself through the sun roof. She raised her gun, using the roof of the car as support, and shot and killed a few more zombies, leaving blood and grey matter splattered all over the parking lot.

Dawn leaned down for a moment. "Admit it. You just wanted me up there so you could ogle my ass."

"I'll admit that had crossed my mind as an advantage of the situation, yes," Xander said. Dawn stood back up.

"You know you coulda had this," she said, very matter-of-factly.

"I am aware," he said.

"So why didn't you?" she asked, firing her gun. The zombie fell to the ground leaking blood and vitreous humor.

"I never thought it would be right for me to make the first move," he said. "Also, with my track record, I thought it best to spare you."

"Spare me but not my sister?"

"We have… similar track records."

Dawn knelt down again, ejected the clip from the pistol and slammed home a new one. He turned to look at her. "Well just so you know, if you hurt her, I'm gonna have to kick your ass."

"I expect there'll be a line," he said.

Dawn leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "You'll be great together."

Xander smiled at her, then looked out the windshield.

"Look around. Do they look like they're gathering?"

Dawn stood up. "Yeah. There's a lot of them coming this way, actually. And by the way."

"Yeah?" he asked. Dawn wiggled her butt.

"If you guys break up, I'll be making that first move."

Xander smacked her on the ass. "I look forward to it."

* * *

"You ready?" Xander asked.

Buffy flopped down in the passenger seat. "Zombies are gross," she said. She flicked her wrist a couple of times, sending a few bits of viscera to the pavement. Buffy swung her legs into the car and shut the door. "Chance of timely exit, 100%."

"Take a left out of the parking lot," Dawn said. "Freeway entrance should be about a mile up on the left."

"What do you think caused this?" Buffy asked as Xander pulled the car out of the lot.

"No idea," said Dawn.

"Maybe Hell got backed up," Xander suggested. Buffy looked at him oddly. "Hey, you don't know, it could happen. A lot of people go to Hell."

"Hell's plenty big enough," Buffy said. "We should call Giles."

"Tried," said Dawn. "Cell service is out."

"What about your satphone?" Xander asked.

"I um. Used it to bash in a head. It's pretty much a loss."

"Damn," said Buffy.

"Well, what about yours?" asked Dawn.

"Didn't bring it," said Xander. "Vi's got smashed in a fight, and we were just coming to Cleveland. Plenty of cell service and land lines here. Whoa…"

Xander slowed the car down and they all looked to the left. A half-dozen cars were clogging the onramp, half of them ablaze. There was no room to get around them.

"Okay…" said Dawn. "Next onramp is about four miles from here, near the mall. Keep going for about a mile and a half, then hang a right on Winstead."

"Winstead, got it," said Xander.

Buffy revised her estimate. "Chances of a timely exit, 85%."

Xander smiled at her. "We'll get out."

"I know," she said, patting his hand.

"So how did you guys get together?" Dawn asked.

"Alcohol," they chorused, then broke down laughing.

"It was um, Faith's birthday," said Xander. "She was well and truly sloshed, and – this was after the blow-up with Robin – and she'd been spending a lot of time with us, so I guess we were all out drinking. Anyway one thing leads to another, and we all end up back at my place, Faith with her head over the toilet and the two of us just talking the whole night. And at some point… we just…"

"Kissed," said Buffy, squeezing Xander's hand.

"I was willing to let her draw her own conclusions," Xander said, smiling at Buffy.

"Winstead," Dawn said, pointing.

"Right," said Xander. He pulled the car around the turn and headed towards the interstate.

"So we just kind of took it from there," Buffy said. "Slowly."

Buffy and Xander smiled at each other.

"Watch out!" Dawn screamed.

Xander spun his head just in time to see the grille of a Ford truck coming straight at him. His foot slammed to the floor and everything went black.

* * *

End Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

Buffy opened her eyes. Everything was blurry, and she could barely make out the dashboard in front of her. Buffy blinked a few times, then wiped her eyes, and the scene began to come into focus.

She was sitting in the rental car, shattered glass all around her. To her left was Xander. He was unconscious, and his face had a lot of small cuts on it , but the rise and fall of his chest told her he was alive.

Buffy turned in her seat and saw Dawn. She was sprawled out across the back seat – she hadn't been wearing a belt – and her head was bleeding badly. Buffy glanced at the rear passenger window as she unbuckled her own belt. The window was cracked in the center, and bloody.

"Dawn," Buffy called. She rested her hand on Xander's shoulder and climbed into the back seat. "Dawn!"

Xander groaned and started to wake up. Buffy glanced back up at him, then turned back to Dawn. She checked her sister's pulse – it was weak, but her heart was beating.

"Buff?" Xander slurred, rolling his head to the right.

"Back here," she said, tearing a sleeve off of her blouse and pressing it gently to Dawn's head. "Don't move around too much, you might have a concussion."

"Is she okay?" Xander asked.

"I don't know," Buffy said. She was checking her sister over. The biggest wound seemed to be the where her head had slammed into the window. She glanced out the space where the rear windshield used to be. "We have to get out of here."

"What?" he asked. His voice was stronger, now, and clearer.

"Zombies," she said, pointing behind the car. A large group of zombies were stumbling toward them.

"How long were we out?" Xander asked. He unbuckled his own belt and felt around for the trunk release.

"I don't know. Xander, we have to get out of here. Can you walk?"

Xander wiped his face with his hand. "Yeah, I'm okay, considering."

"You get weapons," Buffy said. "I'll get Dawn."

"Let me get her out of the car," Xander said. His hand grasped the lever and he popped the trunk.

"I can take care of her!" Buffy snapped.

"Buffy, I know that," he said. "But I'm bigger than you, and it'll be easier for me to get her out without moving her neck. We have to be careful."

Buffy frowned and nodded. "You're right. I know. Sorry."

Xander tried his door, but it was jammed. He slid across the front seat and got out the passenger door, then opened the rear door. "You get out the weapons, I'll get her out, and then we switch. Okay?"

Buffy nodded, and accepted his hand to help her out of the car. She ran to the rear of the car and started pulling the weapons that would be the most useful: pistols (if you were accurate enough, and Xander was), the shotgun, her favorite sword, Xander's favorite axe, and a few smaller weapons.

"Rifle?" Buffy asked.

"Better," Xander said. "I suck with that thing, but it could be handy."

Buffy nodded. She personally wouldn't use any of the guns unless forced to. She preferred her fighting up close and personal. Buffy grabbed the first aid kit and the box of emergency cash, dumped it all in a gym bag and tossed that to the ground.

Xander was waiting with Dawn in his arms, her neck lovingly supported by his right arm.

"Where are we going?" Buffy asked. She pulled a bandage from the First Aid kit and applied it gently to Dawn's head. Xander nodded behind him and to the left.

"Mall looks like the place," he said. She nodded. "You ready to take her?" Buffy shook her head, and a tear formed at the corner of her eye.

"Hey," he said. Buffy continued staring at the head wound. "Hey!" Her eyes snapped up to his face. "Dawn is going to be fine, but only if we get her somewhere safe. And once we get there and patch her up, she's going to need her big sister, okay?"

Buffy nodded. "You carry her," she said. "You can handle her better, and the mall's only about a mile down the road."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." She reached down, grabbed the gym bag and slung it over her shoulder, pulling out her sword as she did. "I'm sure." Xander nodded, and they set off for the mall.

* * *

"Not here," Buffy said, waving Xander away from the glass doors that led into the mall.

"What? Why not?" he asked.

"They're glass. If I break through glass to get us in, we have no way to keep the zombies out. We need to find a more solid door that we can prop something against."

Xander nodded. That made sense, but the truth was that Dawn was starting to get heavy. Although he would *never* tell her that because there were just some things you didn't say to girls.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman appeared at the door. She pointed urgently to their left.

"Hey!"

Xander's head whipped left at the same time as Buffy's, and they saw a young blond man in a dark jacket waving at them from behind a steel door. "Over here!"

Xander glanced down at Buffy, who nodded. The two of them jogged over to the door where the young man they had seen and another, taller guy were waiting for them. "Come on," said the shorter, opening the door fully and stepping aside to let them in. "We've been holing up in here for hours. It's nuts out there."

"Thanks," Buffy said. She let Xander in ahead of her.

"Is she okay?" the taller one asked, nodding to Dawn. The shorter of the two relocked the door and dragged a large shelf in front of it.

"We were in a car accident," Xander said. "I think she's got a concussion, but we're still waiting for her to wake up."

"Come on," said the taller. "I'll show you to the First Aid station."

"Thanks," Xander said.

The two men led them out of the loading dock, down a couple of dull concrete hallways and back into the mall proper.

"How did you guys get in here?"

"Mugged a janitor," said the shorter one. Xander paused and glanced back at him. The guy smiled. "That was a joke. He let us in. We've got a crowd of stragglers here."

"How many?" asked Buffy.

"You guys make twelve," said the taller one. He pointed down another hallway. "Down here."

Xander walked past them with Dawn in his arms and stepped into the room labeled 'First Aid.' He nodded to the beautiful young woman in the room and lay Dawn down on the bed. "You the nurse?" he asked.

"No," said the girl. "I took a first aid course in high school, though."

Xander smiled at her. "Thanks, then, but I got this."

He slowly peeled the bandage away from her head. Buffy frowned at the wound.

"She'll be all right," Xander said. "Um… do we have any tweezers? Alcohol?"

"Sure," said the girl. She opened up a drawer and pulled out some tweezers, then grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol from one of the cabinets, and handed both to Xander, along with some cotton balls and a small bowl.

"Thanks," Xander said. He pulled up a stool, sat near Dawn's head and began picking glass from her wound. He looked up at Buffy. "This could take a little while."

Buffy nodded. "I'll go get you something to drink."

"We'll show you around," said the taller man.

"There's not a mall in America Buffy can't find her way around," Xander said, dropping a bloody sliver of glass into the bowl. He smiled. "Something caffeinated?"

"Sure," she said, winking at him.

"Thanks," he said. "You too, um…"

"Dean," said the shorter. "This is my brother Sam."

"I'm Allison," said the girl.

Buffy smiled at her. "I'm Buffy, he's Xander, and that's my sister Dawn."

"Nice to meet you all," said Sam, smiling. "Come on. This way to the food court."

"Be back soon," Buffy said, squeezing Xander's shoulder. He smiled and watched as she left, then turned back to Dawn. There was a lot of glass to remove.

* * *

"The woman you saw at the door was Gloria," said Sam. He noticed Buffy wince a little at the name. "Her husband was eaten around 4 am, and she was just kind of driving around aimlessly. She… kind of followed us here."

"Followed you?" Buffy asked.

Sam shrugged. "I guess we looked like we knew where we were going."

"We were barely able to get out of her what happened," said Dean.

"How did you guys know we were coming?"

"Otis, the janitor I told you about, he's on the roof with some binoculars watching out for people." Dean unclipped a small yellow walkie-talkie from his belt and held it up. "Tells us what to do."

The walkie-talkie crackled to life. "Dean, I need you up here."

Dean smiled. "See?" He tossed a large ring of keys and the walkie-talkie to his brother and jogged off in the opposite direction.

"So where are you guys from?" Sam asked, leading Buffy through the mall.

"California, originally," said Buffy. "We've been kind of all over, recently. You?"

"Also all over," said Sam. "But Kansas originally. So what are you doing here in Cincinnati?"

"Visiting Dawn," Buffy said.

"She a Bearcat?" asked Sam.

Buffy smiled and nodded. "She's double majoring in Archaeology and Linguistics."

"Wow. She must be smart."

"And she likes old things," said Buffy.

Sam guided them right into a CVS. "This is what's passing for the food court at the moment. Everything there is shut down at the moment. This lasts much longer, we'll have to… fire up a grill or something."

"This'll do great, thanks."

The walkie-talkie crackled to life again. "Sam, you better get up here," said Dean's voice.

Sam opened his mouth and looked at Buffy.

"Go," Buffy said. "I can find my way back."

Sam smiled. "If you need anything, just ask Allison. She's from around here, she can probably find stuff you need."

"Thanks," Buffy said.

Sam turned and walked toward the exit, but stopped and turned around. "And Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"Your sister's gonna be fine."

Buffy smiled. "I know. Thanks."

Sam ran down the hall to a storage room, grabbed a big bag and ran up another flight of stairs, slammed open a door and ran out on to the roof.

"Over here!" Dean called.

Sam turned around and ran to the opposite edge of the roof. He skidded to a halt. "Whoa."

A veritable army of zombies were moaning and groaning and stumbling and slouching towards the mall. As far as they could see, zombies. From every direction, the undead were approaching.

"How many people live in this city?" Sam asked.

Otis grunted. "'Bout 300,000."

"I think they're all coming here," said Dean.

"All of 'em as can," said Otis.

Sam opened the bag. "I don't think we have enough ammo for this."

Dean grunted. "I'm not sure God has enough ammo for this." He turned and looked at his brother. "Sammy, I think we're trapped."

* * *

"Hey, I'm Xander."

"Jerry," said the man in the business suit. "This is my daughter, Allison."

"We met," said Xander.

Jerry tensed and raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Oh?"

Xander smiled. "I brought my girlfriend's sister into the infirmary about an hour ago." He held up the walkie-talkie Dean had given him. "They're both still in there. I'm here as our rep for this… meeting, or whatever it is."

Jerry visibly relaxed.

"Hey everybody."

Xander looked up to the middle of the room and saw Sam standing there.

"Um, I know we're all… well, kind of in shock about what's going on outside. We just wanted to do a status update, tell you all where we are."

"Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in a meeting of middle management?" Jerry whispered to Xander.

Xander chuckled, then held the walkie-talkie up. "You getting this?"

Buffy's voice came back strong. "Loud and clear, sweetie."

"Anyway," said Sam. "We've been up on the roof, with Otis, and we've been trying to keep track of the situation, and it's this: we… are completely surrounded. I don't know if… if we're the only ones left alive in the city, or just the biggest concentration, but it seems that they're all either here or coming here. All of them. As near as we can tell."

The others began murmuring, but Xander stayed silent.

"Guys, if you can um… quiet down?" Sam said. "Listen, we could be here a while, and I think we can all agree that we don't want those things getting in here. We'd like to… well, to start organizing some things. We don't know how long it will be until help arrives. Anyway…" Sam paused and sighed. "Look, I hate doing this, but we've got some paper up here, and if you guys could put down some things that you're good at, we were hoping we could all pitch in and maybe secure this place a bit. I don't know about you, but I don't like the fact that all these glass doors are so exposed."

A guy sitting a few feet away from Xander raised his hand.

"Yeah," Sam said, pointing to the man. "Um… Luis, right?"

"Yeah, hi. When you say all of them, how many is that?" the man asked.

"Well, this is a pretty major city, so… a lot."

"Can you give me an idea?"

Dean, sitting in a chair near the back, leaning against a wall, spoke up. "You ever see those pictures of massively sold out concerts, like LiveAid or concerts in Central Park, where people are just packed in, thousands and thousands of them?"

"Sure," said Luis.

"Well kinda like that," said Dean. "But on every side of the mall."

Xander whistled. "That's a lot. So what's the plan?"

"The plan?" Dean asked.

Xander smiled. "Well you guys seem to be in charge here. You got everybody in here, you've called us together to tell the bad news. What's your plan?"

Sam and Dean looked at each other. "We umm, we're not in charge," Sam said. "We just thought everybody should know what –"

The sound of glass breaking silenced them all.

"Help me!" someone yelled, the voice coming from a nearby hallway. "Please!"

Xander was up in an instant running towards the voice. Sam and Dean were a few steps behind him. He got to the end of the hall and found a middle aged man in a tattered business suit, glass shards in his arms and a large gash on his forehead.

Behind him was a shattered glass door, and a zombie that had come through it.

"Get something to block it!" Xander yelled, grabbing the man by his jacket and shoving him down the hallway. He looked around for something to use as a weapon, and his eyes lit upon a metal rod that looked as if it had broken off the door when it had shattered. He lunged for the rod, snatched it up and swung as hard as he could at the zombie's head.

The rod impacted with a sickening thud, shattering the zombie's nose and breaking some of its teeth. Bits of flesh rained down an all of them. Xander reeled back and hit the zombie again. This time the skull cracked, and a viscous brown liquid oozed from the wound. Xander hauled back again and thrust the rod into the zombie's eye. The end of the rod slammed into its brain and out the back of its skull.

The undead creature fell to the floor, taking Xander's metal rod with it. Xander planted his foot on the zombie's head, gripped the rod again and ripped it free of its meaty sheath.

"Damn," said Dean.

"Come on," Xander said, turning back to them. "We need to block the entrance, or they're going to keep coming in."

"And we need to tie this guy up," said Dean.

"What?" asked Xander.

"He's all torn up, we might not be able to tell a cut from a bite. What if he got bit? Can't take the chance."

"I haven't been bitten," the man said.

"Sorry," said Dean. He hit the man in the face, knocking him unconscious. "Can't take that chance."

Buffy skidded around the corner wielding her sword and ran up to them. "Everything okay?" she asked.

"Handled, for the moment" said Xander. "See anything we can use to block the broken door?"

"Picnic tables in the food court?" Buffy asked.

Sam looked at her oddly. "Why do you have an axe all of a sudden? And how did you get here so fast? You were on the other side of the mall!"

"I'm special," Buffy said. She pulled a pistol from the back of her pants and handed it and the axe to Xander. "Guard this place, I'll go find a table or something to block this door off."

She leaned up on her tip toes and kissed Xander on the lips. "Back in a minute."

Xander watched with interest as Buffy ran off again. He turned around, aimed the gun out the door and shot a zombie that was about to walk into the mall.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean asked. He and Sam were staring at Xander.

"Me? I'm Xander. She's Buffy, the Vampire Slayer."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Vampire Slayer? That's a myth."

"Oh, you've heard of her?"

"Stories," Sam said. "We're kind of in the business."

"Bounty hunters?" Xander asked, warily.

"No. Family thing," Dean said. "It's how we were raised."

"Is there much money in that?" Xander asked.

"I scam people at pool," said Dean.

"And we've got a lot of friends," Sam said.

"Who's your dad?"

"You wouldn't know him," said Sam.

"Probably not," said Xander. "But I might know of him."

"John Winchester," said Dean.

Xander whistled and shot another zombie. "That's a name a lot of people know. I was sorry to hear about your dad's passing. I never met the man, but a colleague of mine apparently knew him pretty well. Respected the hell out of him."

"Who's your colleague?" Dean asked.

"Robin Wood," said Xander.

"How come we've never seen you guys, or even heard of you, except for in stories?" Dean asked.

"We like to keep quiet," Xander said. "Plus, we were pretty much operating out of one place for about seven years."

"Where?" asked Sam.

"Sunnydale."

Now it was Dean's turn to whistle. "I always thought that place was weird, but it's the one place Dad said not to go near." Dean pointed at the doorway, and Xander turned and killed another couple zombies. "You're pretty good with that, for a guy who only has one eye."

"Takes practice," Xander said. "And luckily my right eye was dominant."

"Didn't know people had dominant eyes," said Sam.

"Sure we do," Buffy said, coming around the corner and hauling an eight-foot metal picnic table on her back. "It's not as obvious as hands, though, because most people always use both."

"How'd you lose it?" Sam asked.

"Preacher imbued with the power of the original evil."

Dean chuckled. "Always somethin'." He turned to Buffy. "You need any help with… um… that table that you appear to have ripped from where it was set in concrete?" He turned and looked at Xander with amazement.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks," she said. Buffy set the table down on the floor and slid it up against the hole where the door was. She let go, and the table tilted back down. She frowned.

"Need something to steady it," Sam said.

Buffy turned around. "Ah ha!" she said. She stalked down the hallway, tore a three-foot ceramic tree planter from its place and slid it down the hallway, bracing it against the back of the table. She nodded happily. "That should do for now."

Dean and Sam just stared at her.

"I know what you're thinking," Xander said to them. He walked up to Buffy and draped his arm over her shoulders. "And you can't have her, I saw her first."

"That's not actually what I was thinking," said Sam.

"Well why the hell not?" Dean asked his brother.

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother and took a step forward. "You're really strong. You're also fast, and probably a lot of other things as well. You need to get out of here."

"Have you looked outside recently?" Buffy asked. "There's not a lot of places to go."

"Nobody knows that we're here," Sam said. "This thing spread so damn fast, I don't see any reason why anybody should think anyone's alive. Somebody needs to get out of here and let people know where we are, let them know so they can come get us out. Unless there's someone here faster and stronger than you, I think you're our best shot."

"Sammy, come on," said Dean.

Buffy looked up at Xander. "Kid doesn't even know me ten minutes, already he's volunteering me to die."

"I'm not –"

"Buff…" Xander said.

"What?" she said, sounding offended. "It took Gwendolyn Post, like, hours to get that far, and she was evil!"

"I'm aware," Xander said. "But there's nothing you can do here to help Dawn."

"She's not the only one here I care about, you know."

"I'm aware of that, but I can take care of myself. We're inside, we're relatively safe, considering the situation. We've got food and water, and we can figure out the coffee machine, and you *know* you can make it."

"Wait, you're on my side?" Sam asked.

Buffy and Xander glared at him for a moment. Sam raised his hands in surrender and backed away.

"This place is not secure, Xander," she said.

"I know. But you heard Dean before this happened, we're going to get stuff up and cover all the glass, we're gonna get this place secure."

"But…"

"I can close this place down. You know that. I was foreman for a construction company, I replaced your window and door and fixed the Magic Box more times than either of us can count, I have forgotten more about securing buildings than almost everyone else in the council knows. We are going to be safe here," he said. "But not very for long."

Buffy scowled at him. "You just want some time alone so you can try to score with my sister."

"That is not true," Xander said. "Though I will say that what happens between two good friends in a… constantly stressful environment such as a mall surrounded by undead ravenous zombies… well, such friends could not be held responsible for their actions."

Buffy smiled and turned to Dean and Sam. "I need a car."

"Don't we all," Dean muttered.

"We'll find you one," Sam said. "And, we've got a uh… a couple of grenades. That should help clear part of the way for you."

"Giles or Riley?" Xander asked.

"I'll start with Riley, but definitely need to make sure Giles knows we're okay. And I'm taking your axe," she said.

"What!" Xander said. "My axe?"

"I'm gonna be wading through these things, I need two blades."

"Your sword is double-edged!"

"I know, I'm taking both," she said.

"Oh, now you're just being greedy."

"You're the one sending me out into the undead masses."

Xander paused and turned to the brothers. "Is there a hardware store here?"d

Dean scratched his head. "Yeah, I think so. Why?"

Xander and Dean headed off into the mall.

Sam poked the unconscious man with his foot. "So, I guess I'll just tie him up then."

* * *

End Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

Dean followed Xander into the hardware store, followed him as he perused the aisles, picking up metal pipe fittings, ball bearings, all sorts of small metal objects, but never seeming to find what he wanted.

"Damn," Xander said, once they'd been through the whole store. "No propane."

"Oh, I get it. Big bombs," he said.

"Close," said Xander. "But nothing if they're not here."

"There's also a Sears," Dean said.

Xander grinned, and Dean was sure his eye glinted. "I need bags and tape."

* * *

Buffy stood over her boyfriend's shoulder as he taped dozens of ball bearings to a propane tank. He had a half-dozen more just like it, already made.

"What are these things?" she asked.

Xander looked up at her, then back to his work. "Claymore mines," he said. "Uh… basically big bombs that shoot off a lot of shrapnel."

"So more dangerous than your normal exploding propane tank."

"That's what I'm hoping," he said, unspooling some more tape.

Buffy shook her head. "I can't believe this. I'm in love with a crazy person."

Xander froze mid-rip. Buffy squatted down next to him, reached out with her hand and turned his head so she could look at his face. "You're going to stay safe," she told him. "I cannot lose you, do you understand me?"

Xander nodded. "You know I don't actually want you to go out there."

"I know," she said. "But like you said, I'm the only one who can."

Xander licked his lips. "You know I love you too."

"I do," she said. "How are the doors coming?"

"Well, the ones you put tables in front of are pretty damn secure," he said. "And everybody else is looking for stuff we can use to block off the rest of them. We're really only worried about the ground floor, but that's still half a dozen entrances, with 2 to 4 doors each. So, it's taking a while." He pointed to the remaining two propane tanks. "And this stuff should thin the herd a bit."

"How do you set them off?"

"I shoot them," Xander said. "And then duck, real fast."

"What?" Buffy asked, worry penetrating her voice.

"I'm kidding," Xander said. "I'm gonna make some fuses, open the gas, light the fuse, and throw it. Make the fuse long enough for… five or ten seconds. Plenty of time to get behind something. I figure we can use these to clear out some zombies before you go.

"I'm not leaving until tomorrow," she said. "Until you've got these first floor doors blocked, and we stay the night with Dawn."

"Okay," he said, rising to his feet. Buffy took his hand. "I can finish these later. Let's go see what they've got together."

* * *

Xander led Buffy out to the food court where everyone had been gathering supplies scrounged from various stores.

"Wow," he said to the gathered group. "You guys have been busy."

"How's the haul look?" asked Jerry.

Xander smiled at him and nodded approvingly. He picked through some pegboard that he would discard, some hollow aluminum racks that might come in handy if they needed to bludgeon someone who had a soft skull, and a few posters of Britney Spears from the days when she was still hot.

But beneath the crap was some good material. Some store had gone to the expense of hardwood shelving, and somebody had had the idea of dismantling what looked like a high quality furniture store. As they stood there, Gloria and Otis pushed up a cart with another load of hardwood shelves, and behind them came one of the others whose name Xander hadn't caught pushing another cart loaded with steel shelves.

Xander nodded some more. "This will work well," he said. "Do we have tools?"

"Boy's are gettin' 'em," Otis said. "Figure –" the walkie talkie squawked.

"Uh, Otis, you know where Xander is?" Dean asked.

Otis unclipped the device from his belt and tossed it to Xander.

"I'm here," Xander said. "What's up?"

"Uh… Sammy and I have an angry young woman up here who seems to be having an adverse reaction to not knowing who the hell we are or where she is."

"Where are they?" Buffy asked.

"Gotcha, Dean, where are you?" Xander said.

"Second floor over by Sam Goody's."

Buffy took off running.

"You've got an inbound Buffy," Xander warned him. "And I'll be there soon."

Xander tossed the walkie talkie back to Otis. "Okay guys," he said. "There's some really good stuff in here. Take a break, get some water, something to eat, use the bathroom, whatever. I'll be back when I can, and we can get started on securing this place. You guys have done a really good job."

Xander smiled at them, then took off towards the Sam Goody's at a light jog.

* * *

"I'm really sorry about this," Dawn said. "It's just… I've been kidnapped so much…"

Allison held her nose in the air, with cotton balls stuffed in the nostrils to help stop the blood. Jerry stood off to one side, his arms crossed, as Xander examined his daughter.

"I'm pretty sure it's not broken," Xander said, leaning back from Allison. "It's gonna bruise, and you might get a black eye, but you'll be fine in a couple days. Once the bleeding stops, put some ice on it, and then just… rest."

Allison tried to nod, but winced as she moved her head.

"Again, I cannot say how sorry I am," said Dawn.

"It's okay," Allison said. "I'm just… gonna lie down."

Xander turned to Dawn. "I'm just happy we'd taken your heels off."

She glared at him. Xander turned and smiled at Jerry. "Your daughter's gonna be fine. We'll… leave you alone. Sorry about all of this."

Jerry nodded and walked up to the clinic bed as Xander and Dawn left the room.

"You wake up and your first instinct is to kick the pretty girl in the face?" Xander asked.

"I didn't know where I was!" Dawn protested. "The last thing I remember is being in a car with you guys, and now I'm in this strange, sterile room with some girl I don't know. Honestly, if you had my history, what would you have done?"

"Wondered why my arms and legs weren't shackled, maybe?"

Dawn frowned. "It was a gut reaction. What's that noise?"

"What noise?" Xander asked.

"You can't hear it? It's like… a lot of people are really sick, or something."

Xander paused in his walk and listened, and sure enough he could just make out a low but constant groaning sound.

"Huh," he said. "Must be the zombies."

"But we're inside a mall," said Dawn. "How can we hear them at all?"

Xander nodded slowly, scratched his chin and licked his lips. "Tell you what," he said. "You go to that furniture store and get some rest. We'll talk about all this when you wake up, okay?"

"I feel fine."

"Trust me. Your body's still healing. You're gonna be wiped. Go. Sleep. Then we'll talk."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said. "But answer one question first."

Xander raised an eyebrow at her.

"That um… that guy Sam."

"Oh, how did I know?" Xander said. "How did I just absolutely know! Okay… I know very little about him, but he and his brother are hunters. I don't know anything else. Except Robin knew their dad. And their dad died recently. And he's the younger brother, and he went to Stanford, and his mom and girlfriend were killed by some demon about 20 years apart, but it was the same demon."

"But you don't know anything?" Dawn asked.

Xander scowled and messed up her hair. "Go to bed."

* * *

The first floor doors were secured as well as Xander could make them with the materials on hand. The propane claymores were made and the fuses were cut to length and attached. Dean and Sam had volunteered to take the night's watch; one of them roamed the halls while the other watched from the roof. Everybody else had split into groups and found somewhere to sleep. Xander and Buffy had taken the upper floor of Sears – the floor with all the beds.

Xander rested against the headboard of the bed they had chosen for the night, his arm around Buffy's waist, holding her close to him. Both were catching their breath.

"What do you think," Buffy said after a moment, "about doing this in public once we're out of here?"

Xander blinked. "I think Giles would scratch his eyes out and Faith would ask when she could join it."

Buffy swatted his arm. "I meant the dating thing."

"Yeah?"

Buffy nodded. She lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed it. "I've loved having you to myself the last few months, but I want everyone to know that I got the guy."

"The guy, huh?" he asked.

She slid to one side and turned so she could look at him. "I maybe shouldn't be telling you this, but the honest truth is that we don't know what's going to happen the next few days, and I need you to know this." She sighed. "This is it for me. You, specifically, are it. I know it's too early to really talk about commitment and family and all of that, but I can tell you right here and now that I would be very happy to spend the rest of my life with you. If this doesn't work out, I just move out to the back woods of Kentucky and start collecting cats."

"Buff," he started. "I –"

Buffy pressed a single finger to his lips. "Don't say anything," she said. "I know you're not ready. It's okay. I just… I needed you to know."

Xander nodded, and ran a hand through Buffy's hair. "I do love you."

"I know," she said. She swung her leg across his to straddle him. "Now let's see if I can make sure you don't forget why."

* * *

End Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Two**

Xander tapped his pistol on the tile floor in front of the man – Xander hadn't learned his name – who had busted a door the day before. The man opened his eyes and looked at Xander. His wrists were rubbed raw where he had strained against his bonds, where Sam had tied his hands to separate spots. His skin was pale, and clammy to the touch. His veins were bulging and he was short of breath. His eyes were bloodshot.

Xander sighed. "You got bit."

The man shook his head vigorously. "No, I wasn't! I, I was just –"

"No use denying it," Xander said, pointing to the large, festering gash on the man's shoulder. "It's obvious once we took off your jacket. Which means you're infected. Which means we can't let you loose."

The man's head dropped, and a tear rolled down his cheek. He nodded silently, and it was plain to Xander that he had given up.

"Which means you've got a choice to make," Xander told him. "You're probably going to die soon. Within the next couple of hours. We don't know exactly how this works yet, how fast the… infection, or whatever it is, spreads. But we can't let anyone else near you.

"So here's your choice," Xander said. He pulled a knife from his back pocket and sliced the cord holding the man's right hand, then he dropped the pistol floor. "There's one bullet. You can go quietly at a time of your choosing, or I can come back once you're one of them, and I can end it. It's up to you. But you're not getting out of here. I'm sorry."

The man picked up the gun and looked at it. Xander backed away from him, closed the doors to the store and pulled the gate down on the other side, then locked the gate.

* * *

"It looks a little thinner over there," Dean said, pointing to a section of the parking lot. "Otis has a ladder we can use to get to the top of the garage, and from there Xander and I should be able to clear out a lot of the zombies with his uh… well, his bombs. I think if you head over to the left, you should have a clearer route than otherwise."

"They're not eating each other," Buffy noted.

Dean shrugged. "Vampires don't eat vampires. Makes sense that zombies don't eat zombies."

"But werewolves will eat other werewolves," she said.

"Werewolves aren't undead," said Dean. "They're more like big… really big, scary, well, wolves."

"Really? Scary?" Buffy said. "I kind of always thought they looked like retarded monkeys."

"The hell kinda messed up werewolf have you been fighting that you think it looks like a monkey?"

Buffy shrugged. "Just a werewolf I know. He's a good guy."

"Weird friends you've got."

Buffy laughed, but agreed. Many of her friends were very weird.

Xander walked up to them, hauling two of his bombs with him. Sam and Dawn followed with three more.

"You look good," Xander said to Buffy. She looked down at her clothes. She was wearing new sneakers she had stolen, then broken in by running the length of the mall a half-dozen times. She'd added a long-sleeve shirt, a surgical mask hooked around her neck, a thick leather jacket that was two sizes too big, and soccer-style shin guards she'd appropriated from a sporting goods store. It was not a stylish look.

"You watch," she said. "Three weeks from now, all the Slayers will be wearing it."

"All?" Dean asked. "I thought there was just one."

"I'll explain later," Xander said. "Figure anything out?"

Buffy pointed out to the left of the parking garage. "Over there. The mass is thinner, and happily it's the direction I need to be going."

"We got a car?" Xander asked.

"Jerry said I can take his," Buffy said. "Not the one he left on the side of the road, the one back at his house. It's about three miles away. It's an SUV."

"Great," Xander said.

"You're sure you have to do this?" Dawn asked.

"I'm sure," Buffy said. "The paint isn't enough. I'm gonna get out of here and get in contact with Riley. He should be able to do *something*."

"And if he can't?" she asked.

"Then I call every damn Slayer on the continent and we come cut a path out for you."

Two more of the survivors – Luis, a forty-something Hispanic man who worked in city hall, and Jason, a twenty-three year old grocery store stock boy who was built like a linebacker – brought the last few of Xander's bombs. Behind them was everybody else who had taken shelter in the mall.

"You people here to watch the festivities?" Dean asked.

"You might not want to," Buffy said. "It's gonna be pretty gruesome."

Gloria stepped forward looking angry and determined. "Those monsters killed our families. They *ate* them," she said. "Made them into monsters. Gruesome is the least they deserve." She spat over the edge of the wall.

Buffy nodded. "Fine. How do we do this?"

Xander pointed to himself and the two Winchesters. "We'll be on the garage with you. I hate to make you the runner and the thrower, but you're a lot stronger than we are, so… I'll light the fuses, you toss the bombs to various distances along your path, and Dean and Sam will cover the ramp, in case any zombies decide we smell good. Dawn's up here with the rifle, just in case. Propane goes boom, you run, we haul ass back up here."

"Okay," Buffy said. "We ready to do this?"

"Here," Jerry said, stepping forward. He handed Buffy a key and an index card. "It's the house key and alarm code."

"Thank you, Jerry," Buffy said, accepting the key and card. She stepped up to Dawn and gave her a hug. "No goodbyes. I'll see you in a few days."

Otis had already set up the ladder, and the group of them climbed down to the parking garage, handing the propane tanks down in a chain.

Buffy, the last link the chain, watched as Xander said something to Otis before climbing down the ladder. He jogged over to the rest of them, and knelt down by the first propane tank.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"What?"

"What were you talking about with Otis?"

"Oh," Xander said. "Just instructions for if we get flooded up here."

"What'd you tell him?" she asked.

"To make sure that ladder stayed down here as long as humanly possible, and that if there were zombies ahead of us, they damn well better be willing to fight them off to save our asses," he said.

Buffy smiled at him. "That's my guy."

Xander winked at her and turned to Sam. "We ready? I figure we do one test case, and if that works, then boom-boom-boom, we toss them off as fast as we can, give the undead fuckers minimal recovery time. Everyone okay if I toss this first one over?"

"Sounds good," said Sam. Dean and Buffy nodded their approval as well.

"Okay," said Xander, hefting the tank onto the ledge of the parking garage. "Let's light this puppy."

He looked at Sam, who looked right back at him. They in turn looked at Dean.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Buffy said. She jogged back to the ladder and yelled, "Hey, do any of you guys have a lighter?"

One of the men reached into his pocket and threw a silver Zippo at her. Buffy took it back to the boys. "Glad to see we're all so prepared," she said, pressing the lighter into Xander's open palm.

Xander smiled at her, opened the gas feed and lit the fuse. He grabbed the tank and swung it over the side of the parking garage, releasing it at the height of the swing. It landed about fifteen feet away from the structure.

"Okay," Xander said. "I suggest we duck, and cover our mouths and ears."

All four of them ducked behind the ledge and did as Xander said. About eight seconds later, there was a huge boom, and Buffy felt the parking structure vibrate. She started to rise, but Xander held up a finger. A moment later, a rain of body parts began to fall, drips of blood, flesh, and the thick, brown liquid that the zombies seemed to ooze when injured landed on all of them.

Looking back to the rooftop, Buffy saw Allison and a couple of the others losing their breakfasts over the side of the roof. Gloria, however, stood there rock solid, a bit of a smile on her face.

"Watch that one," Buffy muttered to Xander. "She could be trouble."

Xander nodded, and as he stood up to survey the damage, glanced back to see who Buffy was talking about. "You don't like her because of her name," he said.

Xander looked over the side and saw dozens of dismembered zombie bodies. Heads were rolling on the ground, some of them had been torn to pieces.

The shrapnel Xander had added to the tanks had also worked well. As far as a hundred feet away, he could see zombies with holes ripped into them, and doubtless more than he could legitimately count had had their brains punctured by the projectiles. He judged it a success.

"Just be careful," Buffy cautioned.

"Always," he said.

Buffy stared at Sam and Dean for a moment.

"Right," said Dean, grabbing the lapels of his brother's jacket and dragging him over toward the ramp. "We have to get our, uh, perimeter set. Over here."

"Right!" Sam said. "Uh, good luck, and we hope to see you in a few days."

Buffy nodded at them, then turned back to Xander. She grabbed him and pulled him down for a blistering kiss that left him out of breath.

"I'll see you in a few days," she said. Xander nodded, and together they lifted the next propane tank to the ledge. Xander opened the valve, lit the fuse, and Buffy shoved it over the side. They grabbed the next, and the one after that, and got both over the side before the first exploded, drenching them in a rain of body parts. Buffy tossed each bomb farther than the last. With the eighth and final bomb, she hurled it almost two hundred feet.

As soon as it was airborne, she pulled out her sword and Xander's axe and ducked one final time. The tank exploded and she hopped up onto the ledge, the path in front of her, if not clear, then at least empty of 'living' zombies.

"Buffy," Xander said, just before she leapt down to the parking lot. She turned. "I love you."

Buffy smirked at him. "I know." She lifted the surgical mask over her face.

And then she flew.

* * *

Xander had stayed on the roof of the parking garage, looking through binoculars, long enough to ensure that Buffy had, in fact, gotten through the entire crowd of zombies. Dawn had picked off a few that crept up behind her while she was whirling and spinning and twisting and hacking her way through thousands of the undead, but for the most part she had cleared her own path.

It had taken almost twenty minutes. Dawn got the feeling that, if the zombies hadn't started flooding the parking structure, Xander would have stood there all day.

Now they were all sharing lunch in the food court. The other girl – Erica, Dawn was pretty sure her name was – had been a line cook at some fancy restaurant downtown, and put together a nice meal for them all.

"Just happy to do something," she'd said. "I feel so useless."

She was one of the ones who'd vomited off the roof earlier.

Dawn was sitting on a bench next to Xander, her head resting on his shoulder as he poked at his food.

"She's gonna be fine," Dawn said. "She always is."

"I know," he said. "That isn't what's worrying me at the moment."

"What's up?" she asked.

"Two things. First: what caused this? Zombie outbreaks don't just happen, something or someone has to make it happen. So is it a sign that we missed, or is it some demon or magician who raised the undead and lost control of it?"

"Or Ethan causing more chaos," she pointed out.

Xander nodded. "Or that."

"What's thing two?"

"Buffy mentioned something. Gloria, the woman who lost her husband. She wasn't sickened by those blown up zombies today. She looked like she enjoyed watching it."

"They ate her husband," Dawn pointed out.

"I know," he said. "But Dawn, I've seen a lot of nasty shit. That bezoar thing back in high school, being pelted with bits of the Snake Mayor and knowing that somewhere among those bits were some of my classmates. I saw lots of gruesome, and the carnage out there today still turned my stomach. Gloria didn't even flinch."

"Okay, so," Dawn said. "She's a little nuts. Lots of people would be in this situation."

"That's not what's worrying me," he said. "Nuts I can deal with. But we're missing a gun."

She looked up at him. "Who else knows?"

"Nobody, yet," he said. "I'm gonna tell Dean and Sam, and maybe Otis, but other than that…" Xander shook his head. "The rest of them would just panic and start pointing fingers. We don't need that. I gotta go check on something." He slid out of the bench, but Dawn grabbed his arm to stop him.

"This is going to sound weird, but just listen for a second. Last night was… really weird, but you and Buffy needed the time alone together. But I don't want to sleep alone tonight."

"Dawn…" he said.

Dawn shook her head. "I don't mean sex, not even the same bed, necessarily. I just mean… It's scary outside, and I'd feel better if there were somebody near me who I trust."

"Not the same bed 'necessarily'?" Xander asked.

Dawn shrugged. "Gotta leave something open," she said.

Xander leaned down and kissed her forehead. "You're a horrible young woman," he said.

Dawn smiled at him. "And you love me for it."

Xander chuckled. "Go pick out your bed," he said. "And make sure it's not mine."

Dawn faked a pout and headed for the upper floor of Sears.

* * *

Xander leaned down and unlocked the gate.

"What do you think?" Dean asked. Xander turned and looked at him. He shook his head.

"Didn't have time to get a measure of the guy," Xander said. "But I know what I'd do."

He lifted the gate and pushed open the door behind it and shook his head. "Fuck," Xander said. He hefted the axe that he'd borrowed from Dawn.

The zombie was across the room from them and seemed to be stuck behind the checkout counter.

"How the hell did it get over there?" Dean asked. "I thought Sammy tied it up."

"He did," Xander said, pointing to the spot where the man had been held. The man's hand was lying there, still tied by Sam's knot, and protruding out the back of the hand was the bone from the man's forearm. Xander looked over at the zombie and saw that, from the elbow down, the man's flesh was hanging loosely, leaking that brown viscous fluid, and flapping lightly with every movement.

It was an effort not to lose his lunch.

Dean sighed. "I hate these goddamn things." He raised his gun to shoot it, but Xander stopped him.

"We should conserve ammo," Xander said. He walked over to the man and planted the axe in the guy's skull. The former man immediately ceased moaning and, once Xander managed to pull the axe from his skull, fell to the ground, grey matter leaking onto the floor.

"Okay," Dean said, "that is seriously disgusting."

Xander pulled a couple of big black trash bags out of his back pocket. "You know, I've chopped up the bodies of demons – already dead demons – a few dozen times. We used to have to bury the bodies of the demons that didn't vanish or disintegrate when we killed them, so the people in town wouldn't, you know, trip over them or something."

Xander shook his head and tossed the bags to Dean, then raised the axe. "Never had to do it to a human corpse though."

"Hey wait," Dean said. "Why don't we just carry him out of here?"

"We can't," Xander said. "We don't want the others to see us hauling the body out of here."

"Man, they know what's going on," Dean said. "We don't need to do this. I say just put him in the bags and then dump him outside."

Xander considered the situation, and nodded. "You're right," he said. "Sorry. I'm just… I'm still not sure how we deal with this."

"It's all right," said Dean. "It's new for all of us."

Xander smiled at him and nodded. "Okay. I say we put him in the bags now, but we dump him late tonight. I know everybody knows what's going on, but they don't need to see us hauling a dead body."

"Good plan," said Dean.

Together, they manhandled the corpse into the garbage bags, then left it behind the counter and locked up the shop again.

"How many zombies do you think died this morning?" Dean asked.

"You mean in our little pyrotechnics display?"

Dean nodded.

Xander sighed. "If I had to guess, around three or four hundred. I don't like to think about it."

"Because they used to be people?"

Xander nodded. "It's different with vampires. I mean, they got turned, which sucks, but now there's a demon inhabiting their body that wants to kill and eat a lot of people. Is that what it is with zombies? We know they die, but why do they reanimate? Virus? Magic? Something we haven't thought of? It's just… we know a lot about vampires. How they work, what goes on. We know almost nothing about the zombies. It's… unsettling."

"So your girlfriend ran off into a city of flesh-eating zombies, you killed maybe 400 of those zombies, all of whom used to be somebody, we've got a woman who might be crazy in here and we're missing a gun that she just might have taken," Dean said.

"Yeah," Xander said. "That's pretty much it."

Dean shook his head. "That's a bad morning."

* * *

The rest of the day passed largely uneventfully. They reinforced some of the doors on the first floor, and spent the rest of the day going around looting the stores of anything that might come in handy, as well as some changes of clothes. Gloria spent a lot of time on the roof throwing the heaviest things she could find onto the heads of zombies.

That night, after a long and tasty dinner, during which everybody started to open up and get to know each other, they all went to bed for a fitful night of sleep.

* * *

End Chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Three**

"Well, how much ammo do you have for it?" Sam asked.

Dawn looked in the rifle case and did a quick count. "1000 rounds or so. The guy who taught me to shoot said it's a… NATO round?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. NATO tried to standardize ammo throughout its member nations, but they weren't very successful. There are a lot of guns that use it, but… a lot that don't, as well."

"Wow," Dawn said, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind her ear. "That's cool, like, how much you know about this stuff."

She had chosen for her wardrobe today a loose fitting, army-green tank top, a push-up bra, the strap of which was constantly falling down her shoulder, and a pair of jeans that was about a half-size too small.

Xander leaned back in his chair and laughed. "She's bombing, isn't she?" he asked Dean.

"Probably," said Dean. "The outfit's solid, but Sam's never been one for air-headed chicks, especially when it's obvious they're just doing it to get his attention." He nodded at Dawn. "You ever… you know…"

"What, with her? No, man, I met her when she was like eleven."

"So?" Dean asked.

Xander laughed. "I was sixteen. It's only been the last few years that I've even thought about her as something other than a little sister."

"And now?" Dean asked.

"Well, look, I won't say I haven't thought about it. I mean, she's a beautiful young woman. But I'm with her sister, and happy to be. I mean Buffy… she's been… well, I mean, I met her when I was sixteen, and just instantly, I was done. You know?"

"A little," said Dean.

They heard a fake giggle ring out from Dawn.

"Mind helping her out a bit?"

"Sure," Dean said.

"Dawn!" Xander called. She turned and looked at him, and he waved her over. Dawn politely excused herself from Sam, who looked almost relieved when she left, and came over to Xander and Dean's table.

"What's up?" Dawn asked brightly.

Xander smiled at her, and looked to Dean, who leaned back in his own chair. "My brother got accepted to Stanford Law," Dean said. "His girlfriend went to Stanford. His girlfriend before that was an honor roll student in high school."

Dawn looked between them. "So you're saying drop the stupid."

"Dawnie," Xander said, "all you should ever need to pick up a guy is to be yourself."

"And to accentuate my ass," she said.

Xander shrugged. "Well, that can't hurt."

"Drop the stupid," she said. "Got it. Thanks."

Dawn turned to head back towards Sam when they heard glass shatter and a scream rang down the hallways of the mall. In an instant, their chairs were empty and they were sprinting towards the sound. As they got closer, Xander realized what had happened.

"Fuck!" he yelled, berating himself. "Fucking stupid fuck."

They rounded the corner, weapons drawn, and were greeted with exactly what Xander expected – zombies were flooding into the mall from the footbridge that connected the third floor of the parking garage to the second floor of the mall.

"Get behind us," Xander shouted at Allison. She had apparently been perusing the books at the store directly across from the doors. Xander sent a quick prayer of thanks to the heavens that this entrance was only two doors wide.

Xander whipped out his pistol and plugged the closest zombie in the head, then paused to take a quick count. His best guess said there were already fifteen zombies inside, and more every second.

Dawn slid past him and whipped her axe around, cutting one off at the neck, its head falling to the floor with an almost hollow thud. She spun around and embedded her axe in another zombie's skull.

Xander raised his pistol again and fired, but his chosen target had turned. Its jaw shattered, and now hung from its head by a few strands of flesh. He adjusted his aim, and the brains splattered out the other side of its head.

"The fuck are those guys?" Xander muttered. Dean and Sam were nowhere to be seen, and Dawn, lacking the time or brute strength to pull her axe from the dead zombie's skull, had switched to her pistol as well. The two stood next to each other, taking their time and killing the zombies. In just over a minute, the hallway was clear, if covered in brains and goo.

"I'm empty," Xander said. He reached over to pull Dawn's axe free of its prison, but the zombie's neck had apparently been traumatized at some point before it entered the mall, because he instead pulled the head free of the neck.

"Guh," said Xander. He placed the head back on the floor, stepped on it with his boot and pulled the axe free.

"I'm down to three," said Dawn.

"Allison?" Xander said. He looked around for the girl, but she was nowhere to be found. Down the hall he saw Erica, the cook, staring at them in horror. He thrust a finger at her. "You. Third floor of Sears there's a black gym bag with lots of weapons in it."

"Got it," Erica said.

"And find the Winchesters!" Xander yelled after him, wincing a little as Dawn fired again.

"Shove them out," Dawn said.

"What?" Xander asked.

"The bodies. Throw them onto the walkway, maybe they'll trip up the other ones."

Xander looked at her as if she were mad. "It'll slow them down!" she said. She waved her pistol. "I'll cover you."

Xander ran up and grabbed one of the smaller zombies by its clothes and slid it across the threshold. He managed two more before Dawn had to shoot the next zombie, and four more after that before Dawn ran out of bullets completely.

It did seem to be working, though. A zombie walked up to the pile of bodies, tripped over it and fell face down to the concrete. Xander slammed the axe into it, killing it instantly, and managed to pile the rest of the bodies up before the next zombie approached.

What had been a flood of zombies had slowed to a trickle, but they could see that there were still hundreds of zombies headed their way, albeit very slowly.

"Sorry we're late."

Xander turned at Dean's voice, ready to ream the brothers out for abandoning them, but was instead surprised at their ingenuity. They had, very quickly, gathered together the other survivors and picked up as many different moveable shelves as they could find and brought them up to the busted doors. With a little finesse, and a bunch of 'throw your shoulder against it, it'll fit," they managed to get the doors blocked off, if not particularly closed. It was, for the moment, enough.

Then Erica showed up with the ammo.

* * *

"Nobody got hurt," Dawn said.

"I know, which is why I'm not *actually* beating myself up, just berating myself in my internal monologue," Xander said. "Come on, it was a stupid oversight."

"One we all had," said Sam.

"Sure, but I'm the one who was in charge of securing this place."

"So, what?" Dean said. "We're down thirty bullets out of about five hundred, not counting the rifle and two shotguns? I think we're fine. And anyway, you went back over everything and re-secured it, fixed up that door, and killed about twenty more while you were at it. Not a bad day's work."

"I know," Xander said, leaning back and sipping on one of the beers they had appropriated from one of the many restaurants. "It was just a dumbass move."

Dawn swiveled to Sam. "Bet I can drink you under the table."

Sam raised his eyebrow at her. "Are you even allowed to drink that?"

"No," said Xander. "She's not. But I thought, we're in a mall, surrounded by zombies, and there's no chance of cops coming in and arresting us – eating us, maybe, but not arresting us – and I figured, what the hell."

"And anyway, he doesn't really have any say in it," Dawn said. "I've probably had more to drink in the past couple years than he has."

"Ah, the wonders of college life," said Dean.

"You know, Dawn, you never told me," Xander said. "Why didn't you take that scholarship to Cambridge?"

"Cambridge?" Sam asked. "In England?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Yeah," she said. "But I got tired of England. We were there for months after Sunnydale, and, you know, it was fine, but it just wasn't a place where I wanted to spend the next four years of my life."

"And Cincinnati did?" Dean asked.

Dawn shrugged. "Xander's based out of Cleveland now that he's come back from Africa. Faith was also there for a while, and she can be fun. It got me close to you guys and away from Andrew. So I came to Cincinnati, and Buffy followed to Cleveland."

"You got a scholarship to Cambridge?" Sam asked.

"You should see the deal I've got here as a Bearcat," she said. "I've got a full ride and I'm working as a TA for one of the professors, even though I could totally teach his classes better than him, because his ideas about the progression of proto-Indo-European languages are simplistic, and can hardly tell the difference between… Aramaic and Sumerian. That's an exaggeration, but I can see why they wanted me to help him. Anyway, they actually pay me to go to school."

Sam looked a little overwhelmed, but he smiled at her. "Drink me under the table, huh?"

Xander glanced at Dean. "Retire to the roof?"

Dean grabbed couple more beers and stood up. "I'm there." Xander grabbed a couple more beers for himself, picked up a flashlight, and followed Dean up to the roof. They had, earlier, set up a few chairs up there, to watch for helicopters or planes flying overhead, with a flare gun handy for each chair.

They got up to the roof and came to an abrupt halt.

"Um," said Xander.

"Yeah," Dean agreed. "That's really creepy."

They looked out over the sea of zombies. Their eyes were all glowing a deep, bloody red.

"It started about sunset."

"Ah!" yelped both Dean and Xander. Dean dropped one of his beers and cursed at it. They turned and saw Gloria seated on the roof, her legs hanging over the edge.

"I was up here," she said, her voice raw. "Taking out my aggression."

Xander shone the flashlight over the edge and saw various objects that had been thrown into the masses. One zombie had part of a broken CD sticking out of its eye. Gloria, Xander realized, was wiping tears from her face.

Xander placed his beer on the roof and sat down next to Gloria.

"I don't know what to do without my Michael," she sobbed, throwing her arms around Xander's neck. Xander was surprised for a moment, but then put his arms around her.

"You're going to be okay, Gloria," he said, softly. "I know it hurts, I know it does. It's a horrible situation and scary, and you don't know what's going on."

"He was my life," she said. "He was… he was my best friend, he took care of me."

"Shhh," Xander said. "I know, Gloria. It's bad. It's so bad right now. But you have to believe me… it's going to get better."

Gloria held onto him for almost a full minute more, before managing to quell her tears.

"Thank you," she said, sniffling. She looked up at Dean, and he helped her stand. "You must think me a weak, silly woman."

"Of course not," said Xander, scooting back from the edge and standing up carefully. "The strongest people I know, men and women, break down from time to time."

"Please do me a favor," she said.

"The others won't hear a word of this," Xander assured her.

"That's not it," she said. "Please, just… tell them I'm sorry."

"What?" Dean asked.

Gloria stepped back to the edge, raised her arms in to the sides and fell slowly off the roof.

"No!" they both shouted, reaching for her.

Xander shone the flashlight down to the ground, just in time to see about a dozen zombies tear into Gloria's body, eating her throat, her arms, her legs, her stomach. Her blood flowed freely into their mouths and onto the ground, as the zombies feasted on her flesh.

And the entire time, she made not a sound.

"Xander," Dean said.

"No."

"Xander… you have to. Or give it to me and I'll do it."

"Back off," Xander said.

"You have to do it."

Xander planted his palm on Dean's chest and pushed the man back towards the door. He pulled out his gun, lined it up and placed a bullet in Gloria's forehead. As he swiveled the light away, he swore he saw her smiling.

* * *

End Chapter 5


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Four**

"That's horrible," Allison said. Xander and Dean had just told the rest of the group that Gloria had committed suicide, though not how. Sam, Dawn and Otis had been informed the night before, but they all decided that the rest of them should be let sleep without that on their minds.

"Do we know why?" Jerry asked.

Dean nodded. "Yeah. She was…"

"She was in love," Xander said. "And her world crashed so hard and horribly, and what's happening out there is just… it's so outside the realm of anything she'd ever known, and she couldn't deal with it.

Xander stepped forward a little more. "Please, I urge all of you. We know that there's a lot of weird and scary shit going on right now. There are some of us here that have more experience with this kind of thing. If you have questions, if you have fears, if… if you're just worried about what's happened, or if you just want to talk, come to us. We know that this is scary, we know that this is weird, we know that none of you are used to any of this. Please, please come talk to us. I swear to you, we won't laugh."

Dawn stepped up. "Does anybody have any questions now?"

The grocery store stock boy, Jason, raised a meaty hand. Dawn pointed at him.

"How did this all happen?" he asked.

"We don't know," Xander said. "It could be magic, it could be a virus… there are a surprising number of scenarios."

"Once it was a Nigerian mask my mom brought home from an art gallery," said Dawn. "But we destroyed that. Right?"

Xander nodded.

Allison raised her hand, and Xander pointed at her. "You guys have all been shooting these things in the head, or cutting their heads off. Is that the only way to kill them?"

"As far as we know," said Dean. "Honestly, zombies aren't a very common occurrence, so most of what we know about them actually comes from movies."

The others started murmuring. "Don't let that fool you, though," said Xander. "George Romero is actually an expert in the occult. We ourselves may not have done the research, but that guy gets his stuff right, and pretty much everyone else has taken their cues from him. Destroy the brain, destroy the zombie."

"How did you guys get into all this stuff?" Allison asked.

"Family," said Dean, Sam and Dawn.

Everybody looked at Xander. He shrugged. "Girl."

They all laughed. "But seriously, honestly, we're all going to do whatever we can to get all of you out alive," Xander said.

Luis raised his hand, and Xander pointed at him. "Why did you send your girlfriend out into that mess?"

Xander nodded. "Well, first I should tell you that I don't send her anywhere. Nobody makes her do anything, and I mean that not from a 'she's independent' viewpoint, but from a 'she'll kick your ass' viewpoint. And she went out into that mess out there to save all of our lives. Nobody knows we're here, but we know some people who, we hope, can help us get out. Anybody else?"

When nobody raised their hands, Dawn stepped up. "And I know this sounds a lot like we're at a school assembly, but really, any of you can approach any of us at anytime if you have a problem. We're here to help."

"And to look good doing it," added Dean. "So, sorry Xander."

"Yeah. What? Hey!"

As they started to break up, Allison pulled Dawn aside. "How long have you known about this stuff?"

"Since I was about twelve," said Dawn. "Though they didn't let me really join in until I turned sixteen. Well, not by choice. There was this whole thing when I was fifteen, but…" she shook her head.

"Weren't you scared?" asked Allison.

"All the time," said Dawn. "I still am. This crap doesn't get any less scary… it gets worse, because you learn more of what's really out there, and you realize more and more how fragile we all are. But you can't let the fear get to you, or else you'll just spend your days huddled in a corner sucking your thumb."

"So what do you do to get through it?" Jason asked. The two girls turned to him and he smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I was just… eavesdropping."

Dawn laughed and smiled at him warmly. "It's okay. To get through it all, I know that I've always got the love and support of my family, like Xander and Buffy. People I can always count on in a crisis." She considered. "Also, I drink a lot."

The others chuckled. "Xander's family?" Jason asked.

"Family of choice. I love the big guy, and he loves me. He'd lie down in traffic for me." She raised her voice. "Wouldn't you Xander?"

Xander turned from his conversation with Otis. "Don't listen to anything she says, that girl is full of nothing but vile lies and meanness."

"See?" she said. "He loves me."

"Hey," Sam said, coming up behind Dawn.

"What's up?" asked Dawn.

"Dean and I, and we thought you guys might be up for a tension breaker."

"Sounds good to me," said Dawn. She turned to Jason and Allison. "You guys in?"

They agreed.

"So what are we doing?" Dawn asked.

Sam smiled boyishly. "Can you go get your rifle?"

* * *

"This is more than a little morbid," said Erica. "You realize that, right?"

"We realize," said Dean. They had brought a number of folding chairs up to the roof, as well as some baseballs and gloves to play with while waiting for the real fun. "Sometimes black humor is what you need."

"Oooh," said Allison. "To the right of the light pole at row 5E. It's Kevin Federline."

"Oh, really?" Sam asked. "Dawn, can I take this one?"

"Not a chance, you took Rosie," said Dawn. She found row 5E in her sight and moved slightly to the right of it. "Oh my God, in the Clippers jersey? That looks just like him."

"I didn't even get to see Rosie, now I'm gonna miss out on K-Fed, too?" Xander said.

"Man, quit whining," Dean said, passing Xander his binoculars. "You're like a woman."

"Hey!" snapped Dawn, Erica and Allison.

"Just for that, you lose your turn," said Dawn. She lined up her shot again. "Everybody ready?"

She looked down the line and saw a number of thumbs up. She sighted the target again and pulled her trigger. The crack sounded out, and an instant later a zombie that looked just like the semi-famous husband of a washed-up pop star had its head exploded by a large caliber bullet.

"Wow," said Jerry. "You know I thought I'd disapprove of this, but it's kind of therapeutic. Can I go next?"

"Shooting or choosing?" asked Dawn. She guarded her rifle jealously.

"Oh, choosing," said Jerry. "I don't know anything about firing a rifle."

"Well, then sure," said Dawn. "Pick your victim."

Jerry raised his binoculars to his eyes and scanned the crowd. It took him some time, but when he picked, he picked well.

"Got him," said Jerry. "About a quarter of the way between rows 3B and 3C, and ten to fifteen feet left of the line."

Dawn scanned the crowd where he indicated. There was only one recognizable face in that mix. She backed off her scope and looked at Jerry. "Really?"

"I have hated Burt Reynolds since Cannonball Run," Jerry announced.

"It's true," Allison said. "He's driven me crazy at times, the way he won't shut up about it. I don't know why, but my dad hates Burt Reynolds like nobody's business."

Jerry was nodding furiously.

"Okay," said Dawn, leaning back into the gun. "Burt Reynolds it is."

She lined up the shot again adjusted for wind and squeezed the trigger. The top of the zombie's head popped off, and as it fell to the ground, all those watching were treated to the sight of its brain falling out of its head.

A toupee landed on another zombie's face, and Dawn shot that, too, for good measure.

"Okay," Xander said, handing the binoculars back to Dean. "That about does it for me. I'm on watch tonight, so I'm gonna grab a nap."

"I guess I should catch a nap too," said Luis.

The door shut behind them and everybody was quiet for a while.

"Let me have a crack at that," said Sam.

"You ever handled a weapon like this?" Dawn asked.

"I think I can work my way around it," he said.

"Well, if you need someone to guide you around the curves…" She slid away from the gun and allowed Sam just barely enough room to slide in past her.

The radio crackled to life.

"Dawn," Xander's voice said, "if you could see your way to not flirting with a guy so obviously and horribly while your radio's send button is depressed, that'd be great, okay? Thanks."

Dean was covering his mouth, obviously attempting to stop himself from laughing.

He failed miserably.

* * *

Xander relaxed in his chair on the roof as much as he could. A couple of cold beers, a flashlight, and a beautiful clear night sky allowed him to drown out the moaning of the zombies below with his own thoughts. But, try as he might, he could not ignore the glowing red eyes, and after a while, he stopped trying.

He thought back to the previous night, running it over again and again in his mind. And as much as he told himself that there was nothing he could have done, nothing he could have changed, no sign he should have picked up on, he still felt responsible. Gloria, like all of these people, was under his protection, and he let her down. It was as simple as that.

At least, he thought, she wasn't turned into one of these monsters. Her death may not have been dignified, and she may have gone willingly into the arms of the undead, but Xander hoped that at least she would be happy knowing she would not be responsible for anybody else's death.

A loud, repeating sound like something beating against the air drew Xander's attention to the West. He shined his flashlight that direction but could make out nothing. The sound, however, kept getting closer.

The roof door opened and Luis joined Xander on the roof, fresh from his patrol of the mall's doors. "Still closed up tighter than a nun's twat," said Luis. He looked skyward. "What's that sound?"

"I think it's a helicopter," Xander said.

"You think we should shoot up the flare?"

Xander shook his head. "Not yet. See if they come closer first."

The two men stood there, flashlights aimed at the sound. A minute later it was apparent that the helicopter was still getting closer.

"Do it," said Xander.

Luis hurried over to their chairs and grabbed the flare gun.

"Straight up," said Xander. "Let them know where we are."

Luis held the gun high above his head and fired straight into the air. At the same time, Xander grabbed a bunch of glow sticks they'd appropriated from the novelty store, cracked them and lay them out on the roof, highlighting their position even further. The helicopter approached faster.

"Man I hope we didn't just call over a bunch of insane criminals who managed to get their hands on a military chopper," Xander said.

Luis looked at him, horrified.

"You know," said Xander. "Just… for instance."

A short time later, the helicopter was hovering over them, and somebody was leaning out the side shouting at them.

"I think they want us to move," Xander said as he watched the man gesticulating at them wildly.

He and Luis backed away as far as they could, and the man in the helicopter leaned back inside. He and another man reappeared and pushed a large box out of the helicopter and slowly winched it down.

When the box landed down, Xander ran in and detached it from the winch cable, which was quickly wound back up. He looked up to see if anything else was forthcoming, but the chopper pulled away and flew off into the night. The box was large, too big to fit through the door. Luckily, there was a crowbar taped to the side.

They pried the top off the box and shone their lights inside. On top of everything was a thick manila envelope addressed to Xander. Xander grabbed the envelope, opened it up and pulled out the first piece of paper, while Luis started looking through the box. The paper was a letter to Xander. He scanned the text of it and paled as he did so. Xander stuffed the letter back in the envelope and stuffed the envelope into his jeans.

"Come on," Xander said. Luis turned and looked at him. "Let's unload this thing and have a nice surprise for everyone in the morning."

* * *

End Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Five**

"This came in last night?" Erica asked. She shuffled through the pile of supplies and equipment that Xander and Luis had brought to the food court.

"Dropped off by a helicopter," Luis told her. "They came right up, winched the thing down and flew off."

"They couldn't have spared the time to pick us up?" asked Dawn.

"No," Xander said. "They couldn't."

"Where's all the good stuff?" Jason asked.

"The good stuff?" asked Xander.

"You know, like guns and stuff, and fresh fruit or whatever."

"There wasn't any," Luis said.

"The box is mostly water, MRE's and multivitamins," Xander told him. "Easiest way to feed us and keep us healthy. I mean, there are almost a dozen of us, and it looks like they've set us in for the long-haul. Luckily, we're in a mall with plenty of food to go around, so this stuff will just be last resort. There were about a dozen ammo boxes and a couple of flare guns, but no real weapons."

"Whatever," Jason muttered. He scuffed his shoe on the floor and walked off to one side, looking angry.

"MRE's?" asked Allison.

"Meals Ready to Eat," her father told her.

Dean nodded towards Jason. "What's his deal?" he asked Xander.

"Probably just stress," said Xander. He hopped up on one of the tables and waved for everybody's attention.

"Guys, I do have a letter here. It's um… it's from an old friend in the military, and it's got news for us, since we can't get any ourselves." Xander held up the letter. "He says that the plague – I guess that's what they're calling it – has made it far past the city limits. People who were bitten but had yet to die made it out of the city and infected family, friends and bystanders as far away as Chicago.

"The military is currently working on containment, and they've managed to clean out a few cities and their outlying suburbs – Cleveland, he says, was by far the fastest and easiest, due to pre-existing forces familiar with necessary action." Xander winked at Dawn.

"He says that unfortunately, we here in this mall are in a well fortified position with better-than-average chances for long-term survival due to what he calls 'entrenched experts in the field and large supply stores.' Jesus, Riley, just say we know what we're doing. He… apologizes, saying that at the moment, military command does not consider the rescue of eleven individuals… ten, now, but he doesn't know that… in a fortified position to be a high enough priority to get us evac'd immediately. He says he wishes us all the luck in the world, and that he will not let command forget about us, but that realistically, we should not expect any more aid for at least a week."

"A week?" Jason said, rising to his feet. "A week! I can't stay here for a week, man! Those things are going to bust through, they're gonna get in here, and we're all going to die. I can't die, man!"

"Hey, we are *not* going to die!" Dean said.

"They've abandoned us!" Jason cried.

Dean grabbed Jason by the collar of his shirt. "Hey! Pull yourself together! Listen to that letter a little closer. The military guy said we're in a fortified position, and you got people here protecting you who know what the hell they're doing. That's us, and Xander and Dawn. We are not going to let you die, do you understand?"

Dean released Jason roughly. "That goes for all of you. We are going to get all of you out of this alive. Nobody gives up, and nobody dies. Those are the rules. Is that unclear to anyone? Anybody not get that?"

Nobody said anything. Dean nodded emphatically. "Good."

* * *

"I got no idea how we're going to keep these people safe for another week," Dean said. He took a drag from his beer. "This place is a death trap." He, Sam and Xander had holed up in the mall's administrative office for a few hours to try to work out a plan to survive on a longer-than-expected time frame.

"It's not a death trap," said Sam. "It's just… a little large to hold off this big a population."

Xander nodded. "It's too big. Too much ground to cover, and with all the pressure these zombies are putting on the doors, they aren't gonna last forever. We need to get everything that might be useful from the first floor then block off all the escalators and stairs."

"What, we're just going to let them in?" Dean asked.

"No, we're going to prepare for the inevitability of them making it inside."

"I think they're all pretty calm," Dawn said, sweeping into the room. "We managed to get Buffy out of here alive, and we've handled the two small breaches so far, so they don't have any reason not to. As long as we don't mess up."

"Anymore," Xander said. "Don't mess up anymore."

"That's not your fault," she said.

Xander shook his head and waved his hand as if to wipe away her words. He passed her the letter from Riley. "There's stuff for you at the bottom."

Dawn took the letter. "What about the Slayers?"

"Front lines, all of them," Xander said. He pointed to a bunch of the other papers that had been inside the envelope. "All our witches, too. Giles shipped every available body here, because if this thing gets out of control it could spread across the globe."

"Which would mean what, exactly?" asked Dawn.

"According to some of the information in here," Sam said, picking up a thick packet of papers, "they already have a worst case scenario plan."

"Which is?"

Sam dropped the paper on the table. "Seal off everything west of the Rockies, form a defensive line around the West Coast protected by the military, and everyone else gets to fend for themselves for a few years."

Dawn looked horrified. "What?"

"They've actually got lists upon lists of people who would be evacuated based on usefulness," Xander said.

"Your sister's boy here is right near the top," Dean said. "Just below you, in fact."

"Me? What? Why? Why us?"

"You're Buffy's sister," Xander said. "And apparently I've got a desirable skill set on top of my supernatural knowledge."

"So that means they'd evacuate us, right?" Dawn asked.

"Us," Xander said. He nodded at Dean and Sam. "Them. Nobody else in this building. And they'd actually take you and me by force if they had to."

Dawn grabbed the list and looked through it. She didn't look far. "Xander," she said, "we're ahead of some of the cabinet members."

"There are very few people in the country who would be more important than your sister if this thing spread too far," Xander told her. "And it's their belief that she'd tell them all to go fuck themselves if your safety was not guaranteed. Weigh that against the nation's top lawyer…"

"I can't deal with this," said Dawn. "This is not happening. Why would Riley include this? Why would he tell us this stuff?"

"So we understand," Xander said. "Why containing the problem is more important than getting us out. Why keeping these people alive is up to us, and the only help the government can give us at the moment is some food, water, vitamins and a few boxes of ammo."

"And dossiers on everyone else in the place, don't forget that," said Dean.

"What?" Dawn asked.

Dean held up another file. "Your sister must have told them who else is here, and they wanted us to know who all's in here."

Dawn stood up. "I can't take this at the moment. I need some air."

She stormed out of the room and slammed the glass door behind her. Spider web cracks appeared in the glass, but it did not shatter.

Xander sighed. "So that went well."

* * *

Dawn slammed the door to the roof open and filled her lungs with air. She sat against wall of the shed that housed the door and continued taking deep breaths. It was insanity. It was utter insanity. She rated higher than the attorney general?

And how could they be so ridiculously calm about it? The government, her government, the US government, had a plan which amounted to little more than abandoning two-thirds of the country and basing the future on what amounted to a system of eugenics. It was abhorrent! It was unfathomable. It –

"I thought I was alone."

Dawn jumped up, ready to fight, but relaxed when she saw who was there. "Oh, hey," she said. "Sorry, I just… needed some air, you know?"

Jason nodded. "I know what you mean. The whole… everything… is so fucked up. The city, the mall, the fucking undead. I mean, I don't even know what happened to my friends, my family… my whole life was here. And now it's… what? It's zombie food."

"It's bad," Dawn agreed. She sat down again, her back firmly against the wall.

"Do you, um… do you mind if I sit?" Jason asked.

Dawn looked up at him. She really wanted nothing more at the moment than to be left alone, to figure out her own thoughts and to read whatever Riley had written for her.

"Sure," she said, patting the roof next to her. She couldn't let Jason become their next Gloria. "What's on your mind?"

Jason sat roughly next to her, knocking her in the shoulder. "Sorry," he said.

"It's okay," Dawn assured him. "I'm not that fragile."

Jason sighed. "You're lucky in all this. You've got your friends here, and you know your family's out of harm's way. You know enough about this stuff to have… some idea what's really going on."

"I'm not that lucky," Dawn said. "I mean, my sister got out of here, but she, as well as a lot of my other friends, are just fighting the zombies somewhere else. Right in the line of danger, actually. And like I told Allison earlier, knowing about this stuff doesn't make it any less scary. I mean, one zombie, even half a dozen – not that much of a threat to me, sure. But the thousands of them that are out here?"

Dawn shook her head. "That's a threat to everyone. I couldn't survive out there. I'm relying on this place to hold up, just like everyone else here." She rested her hand on Jason's. "So you're not the only one with bad luck."

Jason looked down at his hand, then smiled up at her, his eyes shining. "Thanks," he said.

Dawn nodded and smiled back at him. "You're gonna be okay," she said.

He nodded. "Well, I'm gonna go get something to drink. Do you want anything?"

"No, thanks," she said. "Oh, but would you be a sweetheart and tell Erica that I'll meet her by the food court at 10 for our night shift?"

Jason grinned at her. "Absolutely." He hurried inside, leaving Dawn alone. She pulled Riley's letter out of her pocket, skipped past everything Xander had read that morning, and found the part that was addressed to her.

'Dawn,' it read. 'Buffy sends her love and deepest apologies that she cannot be there for you right now. She says she has to fight this menace for the sake of the whole world, and hopes that you understand that.

'I know that Xander is there, and imagine that he is, from most people's point of view, 'taking care' of you, but I know that you are a strong woman in your own right. Don't let him take too much on his shoulders. He can handle a lot, but he needs help. He needs someone to delegate to, and there is nobody else there who he can count on as much as you.

'Also, tell him he owes me fifty bucks. If he asks why, tell him I said 'banana' and then force him to explain it to you. I think you'll be entertained.

'I have every faith that we will win this fight, Dawn, but it will be a hard one, and could last weeks. We will re-supply at every opportunity, but supplies are low and helicopters are in high demand.

'Finally, don't worry about stealing stuff this time. I have it on good authority that looting for the sake of survival will be overlooked, so pick yourself out a nice jacket.

Giles, Willow and Sam all send their love, as do I.

Your friend,

Riley Finn'

She folded up the letter and pushed it back into her pocket. Buffy would be okay. She knew that, knew it instinctually. She had gotten through the parking lot full of zombies with barely a scratch. The zombies were slow, and they were stupid. There were just a lot of them. A careful Slayer could take out a lot without much trouble, and a few Slayers, watching each other's backs, could devastate a huge population.

And so she wondered: how bad was it out there if they had shipped all available Slayers to deal with the zombies, as well as Riley's team and presumably a large portion of the military, and they thought it would still be at least a week before they could even be re-supplied again, with no mention of a possible rescue?

She wondered if that had occurred to the others.

* * *

"Because it's not like any other army," Sam said. "Look, there are three defining characteristics of any armed operation, whether it's the Trojans, African tribal wars or the US Army. You have to recruit, you have to supply and you have to lead."

"With you so far," Xander said.

"Now in with a land war in America, the easiest of these is supply. We've got more food, more bullets, more guns, than pretty much anyone else on Earth. We have a well-maintained infrastructure to aid supply lines from so many different directions, it would be almost impossible to cut them all off. So we've got equipment and the means to get that equipment to our soldiers."

"Right," said Dean. "Or you can just go down to the local Wal-Mart."

"Exactly. Now the next easiest is leading. We've got a solid military chain of command, and the military is well trained. Lines of communication are easy to set up as long as you've got radios, and orders can come down from up on high in a matter of minutes. They usually don't, but they can, conceivably. In a situation like this, the on-site commanders will have a lot of flexibility, and honestly, there's not a lot you need to know except for 'shoot for the head,' and 'don't get bit.'"

Xander and Dean both nodded.

"The biggest problem here is getting warm bodies to be led and to use all those supplies," said Sam.

"Wait, we've got a huge military," said Dean.

"Sure," Sam agreed. "But they're in the Middle East. How long will it take them to mobilize and get back here?"

"Could be a while," Xander said. "But we're not just relying on pre-trained military."

"Of course not," said Sam. "A land war in the US? The military will have unheard of recruiting numbers. The Army especially will have numbers they haven't seen since World War II. Police and militias and National Guard, hell, I'd be surprised if the Mounties, Canadian armed forces or whatever, aren't helping."

"So what's the problem?" asked Dean.

"The problem is that those people still have to have at least some training, and that takes time. Time is something that is not on our side, because the longer this fight goes on, the worse off we are, and the better off the zombies are."

"Because they don't have to train anyone?" Xander asked.

"And because they can grow their numbers just by killing us," said Sam. "If they kill one of us, it becomes a net gain of two on their part, because we lose one and they gain one."

"Yeah, but one of our guys can take out dozens of them," said Dean.

"Sure," said Sam. He stood up, grabbed a marker and walked to the wall. He drew a bunch of dots on the wall, and above them a long curve. "So say these dots are zombies, and this line is our military." He then placed a number of X's on the wall, and from one of those X's, drew a line away from the curve. "These are civilians inside the zombie zone. Now, one of them breaks free of the zombie mass and because he doesn't know they're there, he runs the opposite direction of the military.

"Mr. X here runs into a new civilian population." Sam drew a bunch of circles at the end of Mr. X's line. "But little do they know, he was bitten. And he doesn't know that that's how the zombie-ism spreads, or he's just a sonuvabitch, whatever. So a day later he dies there, re-animates, and bites two people before he's killed." Sam placed two more dots on the wall.

"But those two people bite two more, and two more, and two more," he drew another large field of dots, "and suddenly the military has a whole new front to fight on. In a war with zombies, one infected person can create a whole army. And they don't need any leaders, and they don't need any supplies except for our flesh. Which there is a lot of."

Dean and Xander were silent.

Sam capped the marker and tossed it back on the desk. "And what happens if Mr. X gets on a plane?"

Xander cleared his throat, sat up in his chair and smiled at Sam. "Okay, new rule. You don't get to talk any more, because that was officially the scariest goddamn thing I've heard in my entire life."

"Sorry," said Sam.

Xander shook his head. "No it's good we know. But um. Let's not discuss that freely."

Sam nodded. "Agreed."

There was a knock on the door.

"Yeah," Xander called. Erica poked her head in.

"Hi, guys," she said. "Xander, I had a question for you."

"What's up?" he asked.

"Well, I just had an idea, is all. Your friend said we're going to get some more supplies, right?"

Xander nodded. "Eventually, yeah. They're not going to let us starve."

"Well, you said they winched that crate down last night?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you think they'd be willing to winch stuff back up? I don't mean us," she said. "But if we had something ready to go…"

"Like what?" Dean asked.

"Like… letters," she said. "If we all wrote letters to people on the outside, do you think they'd deliver them?"

Xander scratched his head for a moment. "I don't honestly know," he said. "But that's a great idea, and I think it's worth it to try to find out. Why don't you tell everyone that if they have relatives or people who would like to hear from them, they should write letters with as much of the address as they can remember."

"Really?" Erica asked.

"Yeah. Tell you what, we'll put them in a big envelope that I'll address to my buddy as Eyes Only. I guarantee he'll do his best to get them out."

"You can do that?" she asked.

Xander shrugged. "I can try."

"Wow, great," she said. "Thanks."

Erica left the office, and Xander turned to Sam. "All that stuff you just told us. You think you can write all of it down?"

"You don't think they know all that?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," said Xander. "But I'm not willing to take the chance."

Then the power died.

* * *

End Chapter 7


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Six**

Xander followed Otis into the warehouse and shone his flashlight around the large area.

"Over here," Otis said, walking over behind a big batch of shipping crates. Xander followed Otis's flashlight beam.

"Wow," Xander said. "This is… perfect."

"Well, L.L. Bean was about to do a big build out. I plum forgot about it while we were boarding up the doors, but then I remembered and thought it might do well for what you've got in mind."

Xander looked over the piles of material. There was lumber, plywood, drywall, rebar, loads upon loads of nails, screws, nuts and bolts. "Tools?"

"I don't have much," Otis said. "But you been sleepin' right on top of a whole store of 'em."

"Batteries aren't charged," Xander said. "And I can't exactly plug them in."

"We might be able to solve that," Otis said. He pulled a big drop cloth and exposed a moderately sized generator.

"Otis… that's fantastic," Xander said.

"Only problem is it's out of gas. Where's everyone else by the way?"

Xander grinned.

* * *

 _On The Roof_

Luis raised a sledgehammer over his head and brought it down hard on one of the translucent glass panels that made up the skylights that ran the length of the mall. The glass shattered and fell in a lethal rain that made him thankful they'd cleared everyone out of the mall proper before doing this.

"Man," he said, resting on his sledge's handle for a moment. "This shit is fun, but I'm gonna hate cleaning up after us."

Dean brought his own sledgehammer down on another pane of glass, shattering it and sending the shards flying into the mall below. "Yeah," he said. "But it does feel *really* good."

* * *

"Getting us some more natural light," Xander said. "No gas is a problem."

"Yup," said Otis. "But if you can get gas, we can power the whole mall for a little while."

"How much does it need?" Xander asked.

"Full tank is about sixty gallons," Otis said.

Xander sighed. "Well, it was a nice thought. I guess we'll have to deal with hammers and screw drivers."

"Not necessarily," Otis said. "Come on down this way."

Xander followed Otis again, this time down beneath the mall. Otis took him to a solid steel door, but didn't open it.

"Sears used to have their own generator," Otis said, "about twenty years ago. They pulled it out when they expanded, but they never took out their underground gas tank. It's maybe a hundred yards to the left out here, and as far as I know, it should still be pretty full."

"How big is it?" Xander asked.

"About five hundred gallons."

Xander whistled. "That should do it. So what's the problem?"

"Open sewer between here and there. I don't know if it's infested, but I ain't willing to take that chance, and you boys seem to know what you're doing."

"Sending us out to do your dirty work, huh?" Xander asked.

"I'm sixty-two," Otis said. "I didn't live this long by stickin' my neck out."

Xander nodded. "Do we have enough hose? I'd love to be able to pump the gas back into a large container here."

"You're sleeping in Sears," Otis said. "You tell me."

* * *

"Assuming there are zombies down there, and that's the assumption to make, we clear out around the door, leave a rear guard on that side, heavily armed both melee and range, then clear as we go down toward the tank, methodically. The zombies are slow and stupid, and we need to take advantage of that.

"Once it's clear, we have a runner bring the hose while we do whatever we need to do to get the tank open. Hook up the hand pump and rotate pumpers while the others guard. Once we've filled the tanks we have here, we cap the tank then hustle back here and secure the door."

"See," Xander said, turning to Dean. "She can plan it just as well as you can."

"Man, that's an easy op. A third-grader could plan that one."

"He's not wrong," Dawn said. "There again, I can repeat that whole spiel in four dead languages and two demon ones."

"See, now that's something I can't do," said Dean.

"And let's be honest," said Sam. "Doing any of it, she looks better than you do."

"You're just saying that because you haven't had the balls to kiss her yet," said Dean.

"What?" said Sam. "That's not – no, I –"

"Oh, so you don't want to kiss her?" Dean asked.

"No! I mean, wait, no, that's not what – I didn't say that, you're just –"

"So you do want to kiss her," Dean said.

"Yes!" said Sam.

"Then why haven't you?" Dawn asked, looking, if it were possible, ironically affronted.

"I… well…"

"This should be interesting," said Xander.

Dawn further complicated the issue by crossing her arms and taking a deep breath. She waited.

Sam glared at Dean. "I really hate you sometimes."

"And the lady awaits her answer," Dean said, smirking.

Sam turned to Dawn. "I like you," he said. "But honestly? You're kind of intimidating."

"Intimidating?" Dawn asked. "You've got like 8 inches and a hundred pounds on me."

"Yeah but I'm not used to… I mean you're really, just…"

"Sammy's not used to girls who are smarter than him," said Dean. "Or pretty much anyone, for that matter."

"Oh, man has that never been my problem," said Xander.

Dean smirked. "I know, right? This kid had me beat since he was twelve."

"You guys told me to drop the stupid," Dawn said.

"Yeah, and it would have worked soon." Dean said. "He was comin' around but, well, we all need new ways to entertain ourselves."

"Back to the matter at hand," Xander said, "Luis or Jason?"

"What?" the others asked.

"We're going to need another hand. Luis or Jason?"

"Why not Erica?" asked Dawn.

"Her meals keep morale up," Xander said. "And if we get this gas, she should still be able to make them." Dawn conceded the point.

"Luis is probably faster," said Dean.

Dawn shook her head. "Yeah, but Jason's stronger, and honestly? I think he feels kind of useless."

"Not Jerry?" asked Sam.

"Sammy," Dean said, shaking his head. "No."

Xander and Dawn were also shaking their heads.

"What?" he asked. "Why not?"

Xander shrugged. "He's got a kid."

* * *

After rudimentary courses in handgun safety ("Squeeze, don't pull. Aim low because the recoil will bring you higher. Never point it at someone else, ever. Never assume the safety is on.") and sword play ("Aim for the neck. The pointy end goes in the other guy.") nobody felt Jason was ready to fight zombies for a living, but they didn't have time to train him any further. Xander was convinced the zombies would break into the mall sooner rather than later, and he wanted to be prepared.

Everybody had gathered in the sewer access room, ready to assist in any way they could.

"You all ready for this?" Otis asked. He looked to Xander. Xander finished strapping on a tool belt, nodded at Otis and turned on his flashlight. He held his gun ready, aimed down but ready to raise it at a moments notice. Otis turned the key and pulled the door open.

Xander fired. Everyone else blinked, then looked at him.

"Sorry," Xander said. "I um… I don't like rats."

"And you thought it was worth a bullet?" Dean asked.

"Whatever, let's just move," said Dawn.

Xander nodded and moved up to the door. He shined his light both ways. "Looks clear," he said. He stepped out into the sewer and scowled. "Doesn't smell clear, though."

"Zombies?" Jason asked.

Xander shook his head. "Just smells like shit."

"Rather shit than undead," said Dawn.

Xander shone the flashlight in the direction of Sears and stepped into the sewer. The others followed. "Sam, you've got our backs."

"Understood," Sam said.

"Jason doesn't step one foot in until we signal all clear," Xander said.

"Xander, I've got it. Let's get this done."

Xander sighed. "Right. Yeah. Okay."

He led the group down the sewer, up to a T junction. He swept as far down the junction as he could with his flashlight, then crossed to the other side. "Dean," he said.

"Right," Dean said. He took up a defensive position at the T junction. Dawn and Xander continued on. Fifty feet later, they found the gas tank.

"Finally, something goes fucking right," Xander muttered. He shone his flashlight on the tank, highlighting the cap that would give them easy access to the gas. Xander handed his gun to Dawn, pulled a wrench from his belt and went to work on the cap.

Dawn stuck Xander's gun in her waistband, and checked the sewer out twenty feet past the tank.

"Clear," she said. She unclipped the radio from her belt. "Send Jason down," she told Sam.

A few moments later, Xander had the cap off. He grabbed a 6-foot, pre-cut length of hose from around his waist and dumped the end into the tank. It landed with a satisfying splash. He hooked it up to the hand pump they'd found and waited for Jason to show. A minute later, the young man was there.

"Here I am," Jason said. He smiled at Dawn. "Hey."

Dawn smiled back at him. "Hose," she said.

"Oh, right, sorry," Jason said. He handed the end of the hose to Xander, who attached it to the hand pump.

"Everything set?" Dawn asked into the radio. A moment later Sam returned that they had the containers set and were ready to go. Dawn nodded at Xander and he started pumping. It was hard work, but after a few seconds he had a good flow going. Xander had no idea how long it would take. They stood there silently for fifteen minutes, Xander pumping away the whole time. Jason, Xander noticed, was fairly blatantly staring at Dawn the entire time. Which was to be expected, he supposed. Dawn was a very attractive young woman.

"Hey, where's Dean?" Jason asked, suddenly.

Dawn and Xander stared at him. "What do you mean 'where's Dean?'" Xander asked.

"He came in with you guys, right? I didn't see him anywhere."

"You're just mentioning this now?" Xander asked.

Jason winced. "I assumed you guys knew."

Xander and Dawn locked eyes, and Dawn started to raise her radio again, but Xander stopped her. "Don't call," he said. "No reason to worry Sam if its nothing, and we need him to stay there. And if Dean went down that tunnel, he might not get the signal anyway."

"But –" Dawn started.

"I'm going," Xander said. "Jason, can you take over pumping for me?"

"What? Yeah, absolutely," he said.

"Thanks," Xander said, accepting his gun back from Dawn as he handed the pump to Jason. He turned to Dawn. "You hear anything, you both book it, you understand? This gas is not worth your life. We can figure out another way to make do."

"Got it," Dawn said.

Xander took off running for the T junction, and found Dean wasn't there, just as Jason had said. He raised his gun, stepped into the off-shooting sewer and shone his flashlight down. About a hundred feet down the tunnel, he heard moaning. Two hundred feet further, he found Dean standing at a four-way junction. Across from him was an iron gate that, from the look of it, was welded shut.

Behind the gate stood hundreds of zombies.

"Something's not right here," Dean said.

Xander looked at Dean, and the zombies, and then slipped his gun into his waistband. "What?" Xander asked.

Dean shined his flashlight at the lock on the gate. Xander looked at the lock and squinted. He approached the lock, getting within about three feet of it to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.

"Fuck," he muttered.

"Pretty much," said Dean.

"We'll deal with this later, right now I just want to get this gas and secure the mall."

"Yeah," Dean said.

Both of their radios crackled to life and Sam's voice rang out in the sewer.

"Contact!"

It was followed a few moments later by the sound of gunfire.

Without a word, Dean and Xander sprinted down the hall.

"Dawn," Xander yelled into his own radio, "cap the tank and hoof it back. Make sure Jason keeps up."

Xander pulled his gun from his waist band and turned the corner a half-step behind Dean, just as the gunfire stopped for a second, then restarted. They ran up the tunnel back to the mall entrance and saw Sam standing fast with a tunnel full of zombies approaching, their eyes glowing red.

Dean pulled up firing, stopping right beside his brother.

"Reel the hose in!" Xander yelled as he, too, pulled up beside Sam, firing at the zombies. Heads exploded left and right, leaving grey matter covering the already dirty sewer walls. The zombies' progress slowed, but there were too many. They were getting closer by the second.

A moment later, Sam's gun went silent again.

"Out!" he said.

"Get back inside, you can't do anymore out here," Xander said. Sam stepped back from the line, and Xander and Dean stepped closer together.

"Where the hell are Dawn and Jason?" Xander asked. He picked his shots carefully, always shooting the closest zombies, always making sure each bullet was a kill.

Dean's gun emptied a second before his own. For a moment, the only sound in the sewer was the moaning of undead, getting constantly louder.

They slammed their new clips home together, and resumed firing.

"Here we are!" Jason called out, breathing heavily.

"Inside!" Xander yelled. The zombies were only a few feet away now, and instead of wasting his bullets, Xander pulled the axe from his back and started taking heads.

"Mouth closed!" Dean yelled. Xander swung the axe as hard as he could, and killed three zombies with one swing.

"We're in," Jason yelled, just as Dean's gun went silent again.

"Come on!" Dean yelled.

Xander swung the axe again, taking another zombie. He swung again, and again, killing two or more each time. A grin curled his lip. He swung, and swung, and swung again, covering himself in blood and bits of flesh.

A moment later, Xander found himself dragged from behind and pulled into the mall. The door slammed, severing a hand as it did so. Xander fell to the floor and slid back up against a wall. He found himself staring up at a wide-eyed Sam and Dean. His eye was blurry and unfocused, his breath ragged.

Otis handed Xander a handkerchief. Xander wiped the blood from around his mouth and spat into the corner. He looked around the room. Everybody was staring at him. Allison even looked a little frightened.

"Sorry," he said. "I um… I got carried away. It won't happen again." He saw Dawn leaning heavily on Jason, and the young man's arm around her waist. "You okay?"

"Twisted my ankle," Dawn said. "Big hero here had to carry me back."

Jason blushed, but couldn't keep the grin from his face. His arm tightened around Dawn protectively. Dawn looked up at him in surprise, but said nothing.

"How much gas did we get?" Xander asked.

"About eighty gallons," Jerry said.

Xander nodded, still breathing heavily. He reached his arm out and Dean helped him off the ground. "I um… I'm going to go change and try to wash up some. Sam, Dean, can you guys uh…"

"We'll get the gas upstairs," Sam said.

Xander nodded and walked towards the bathroom, a trail of disbelieving stares and bloody footprints in his wake.

* * *

Xander stood in the bathroom, staring into the mirror. He wore only his underwear and the cross Buffy had given him for his last birthday; his ruined shirt, pants and shoes were piled up in the corner.

Xander stared at his own face, the blood of the undead covering his skin. He ducked his head down to the sink, cupped some water in his hands and poured it over his head, making sure to keep his mouth closed. He repeated this again and again until the blood had all drained down into the sink.

Xander grabbed a paper towel, wiped off his faced, and then braced himself against the sink. He looked up into the mirror again and saw Dawn standing behind him, holding a small basket.

"Not nice to sneak up on people," he said, smiling at her through the mirror.

Dawn didn't smile back, though. She limped up to the sink, turned around and hopped up on it.

"Your ankle okay?" he asked.

"It will be," Dawn said. "Lean down."

"Huh?"

"Lean down," she said, reaching up to his head and pulling it down to her eye level. She leaned his head over the sink and began picking little bits of zombie flesh from his hair.

"What happened out there?" she asked.

"I just got caught up in it," Xander said. "Nothing to worry about."

"Well I do worry," Dawn said. "That's not like you. It's not like you at all."

"I know," he said.

"So what was it?" Dawn asked. "What made you go all Wolverine out there?"

"I don't know," he said. "I just did."

Dawn sighed, picked a final bit of zombie from his hair, then turned on the faucet and pushed his head under the water. She pulled a small bottle of shampoo from her basket and poured a small amount on his head. She massaged the shampoo into his scalp for a few minutes. They said not a word to each other.

When Xander's hair was clean and rinsed, Dawn handed him a towel from her basket.

"You're not alone here, you know," she said. "We all want to chip in, but we just don't know what to do, and it's been pretty obvious that you're pretty much the only one who can tell us."

Xander smiled, but looked confused. "I don't know what you mean."

Dawn looked disappointed. "Okay," she said, appearing to accept the statement. "But if you find out, just know that I'm here for you."

Xander continued to look confused and shook his head.

"All right," she said. "Dry yourself off. I'm going to go get you some clothes."

Xander smiled. "Thanks," he said.

Dawn smiled sadly and limped out of the bathroom.

* * *

End Chapter 8


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Seven**

The tools were charged, the lumber and drywall were laid out and everyone was ready to work.

"Okay," Xander said. "To start off, we need everyone working on the frames. Otis and Jerry, Luis and Dawn, you guys are working on wall frames. Eight foot boards on top and bottom, ten foot high studs every twelve inches."

"I thought most walls have studs every sixteen inches," Luis said.

"They do," said Xander. "But most walls don't have to deal with a press of zombies. Twelve inches gives us a little more strength – an extra stud per eight feet. Allison and Erica, I need you guys to frame two walls for doors – set two studs thirty-six inches apart, the rest of them 12 inches apart. I'll come through later and actually hang the doors. Once you've done those two walls, start in on the normal walls."

"Why doors?" Sam asked.

"Just in case," Xander said. "There's the off-chance we might need something from down here, and I want to be able to get it. The doors will be well blocked, though, so we won't have to worry about the zombies coming through unless we actually need to go through, which I think is very unlikely."

"How many do we need total?" Erica asked.

"Two," Xander said.

"Oh, uh, I meant wall segments."

"Twenty-seven, including doors," Xander said. "Three staircases and six escalators, three walls for each of those."

"What about the escalators in Sears?" asked Luis.

"Sears has not only a gate we can pull down and lock to block it off, but some doors we can slide shut and lock to further secure it," Dean said.

"How are we going to get the walls not to move?" Jerry asked.

Xander reached down and picked up a tool that was about eighteen inches long. "This will send nails into concrete," he said. "Load a .22 caliber bullet – which come with it – and hammer the top. It shoots these special nails into the floor. After that, whatever's nailed don't move."

"That thing dangerous?" Jason asked.

"Extremely," said Xander. "But it can also be a lot of fun if you're frustrated. We'll take turns. The rest of us will be searching through first floor stores to find anything that might be useful, and hauling either upstairs or into the first floor of Sears. Any questions? No? Great, then let's get to work."

* * *

Three and a half hours later, Xander inspected the work the framing teams had done.

"No!" he yelled, slamming one frame to the ground. "This work is fucking sloppy. Who did this?"

Erica and Allison raised their hands.

"Look at this joint," Xander yelled, his face red. "Look at how sloppy that is! That won't stop a zombie. That won't stop a fucking pussy cat."

He grabbed another section of framing. "And look here, this is barely nailed in. It's shoddy workmanship, and I won't stand for it. You people are going to get us all killed. We are all going to fucking die, and you know what? It won't be my fault."

Allison broke into tears, and ran into her dad's open arms. Everybody was looking ashamed. Except Dawn.

Dawn strode up to Xander, who was looking at the work they had done and muttering about having to redo everything.

"Can I talk to you?" she said.

"Not now, Dawn," he said, his lip twitching.

"No, I think now," she said. "We need to have a discussion."

Xander rolled his eyes. "Fine."

Xander followed her through the mall and into the administrative office. Dawn turned the lock on the door and kicked her shoes and socks into a corner.

"What was so important that it absolutely couldn't wait?" he asked.

Dawn said nothing, but stripped off her shirt, unbuckled her belt and shimmied out of her pants.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, not believing what he was seeing.

"Getting ready," she said.

"Ready for what?"

"Well, gee, Xander, if you're just going to be reaming everybody out, I thought you owed me the favor of doing me in private," she said. "Should I bend myself over the desk? Or do you just want me on my knees?"

"Oh, you know what? Fuck you. I yelled at two people for shoddy work."

"No, fuck you," she said. "Because it's pretty clear to everyone that you're cracking, and I can't wait until the cracking is done because, news flash! We're all in danger here. Every single person out there is giving you their damnedest. They're working hard."

"Yeah well they're fucking it up," he said.

"Well they don't know any better," said Dawn. "Nobody here has ever worked construction. They don't know shit about building walls, so back the fuck off."

"I back off and people die!" he yelled.

"You keep treating people like they're petulant children, and they'll mutiny. Then see who's left alive."

"I can't protect them if they don't –"

"You can't protect them if they're not willing to follow you!" Dawn said. "Jesus, Xander, I know you blame yourself for Gloria but this is ridiculous."

"She was under my protection!" Xander yelled.

"She was a sad, sick woman who Sigmund fucking Freud couldn't have helped," Dawn said. "And nobody saw it! Not me, not Sam or Dean or anybody else, and not you either. You can't change that."

"You didn't have to shoot her!" he said, turning to the wall so she wouldn't see his eye moisten. "You didn't hold her in your arms while she cried! You didn't see… you didn't hear how in love she was, how lost she was! And how much joy she felt at dying." He lowered his head leaned against the wall.

"And I'm sorry that you did," she said, stepping up behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his back. "I hate that it was you, but why are you taking it out on the rest of us?"

Xander took a deep breath and spoke quietly. "Because I can't let that happen to Buffy."

Dawn pulled Xander from the wall and turned him around. "Xander… what?"

Xander looked at her and sat down in one of the chairs. "Can you, um… can you get dressed?"

Dawn's eyes widened and she quickly covered her nearly-exposed-breasts with her arm. A minute later she had put her shirt and pants back on and was willing to face Xander again. She pulled up a chair and sat down right next to him.

"Xander, what… did you mean? That won't happen to Buffy."

Xander shook his head. "It's not as egotistical as it sounds," he said.

"No, I didn't think…"

Xander sighed. "Your sister, I'm sure you'll agree, has had horrible luck with men. Angel, Riley, Spike, the Immortal... they all left her, or they died. Or in Angel's case, both. And now there's me, Xander, the underdog who often hoped but never expected to get the girl."

"I still don't –"

"And then five days ago, she tells me she's in love with me. And more than that, she tells me I'm her last chance. That if… that if it doesn't work out with me, she's gonna go get a bunch of cats and move into the woods. And I just keep thinking about what Gloria said, about how she was lost without her husband, and about how she didn't know what she was going to do, and I just…"

He sighed. "I am in love with your sister. Madly in love. If I wasn't so fucking insecure, I'd propose to her in an instant. And I know she's not the type to… jump, like Gloria did. Buffy's the strongest woman I've ever known, but I just keep thinking… what if? What if I'm wrong? What if she's not as strong as I think? What if I die… and that's the last straw? How can I not do everything possible to prevent that?"

"Is that why you went a little psycho yesterday?" she asked.

Xander nodded. "I guess I was thinking… if they're all dead, if I kill them all… they can't kill me. That plus what Dean and I saw in the sewer…" He chuckled ironically. "And in so doing, put myself in more danger from them than I'd been this whole time."

"What you what?" Dawn asked.

"Huh?"

"You said you saw something? In the sewer?"

"Oh, yeah," Xander said. "I guess I didn't tell you. We found a gate in the side tunnel that had been welded shut."

"So?" she asked.

"The weld was fresh. No more than a week old at the most."

Dawn leaned back in her chair. "Wait," she said "But that would mean that… that someone, someone here, knew what would happen before it happened."

"Probably," Xander said. "Though that doesn't explain how those other zombies got in. But yeah. It looks that way."

"Nothing ever goes right, does it?"

Xander sighed. "I guess I need to apologize to everyone."

"Probably," Dawn said.

They both stood, and Dawn unlocked the door.

"Hey Dawn?"

"Yeah?"

Xander pulled her into a hug. "Thank you for being here for me," he said. "Thank you for calling me on my shit. And I'm sorry I was a dick."

"It's okay," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "Just don't do it again or I'm going to have to beat you up."

"Times like this I don't remember why I picked your sister over you," he said.

"Cuz you've had a hard-on for her since tenth grade."

"That's right, that's what it was," he said, following her out of the office.

"Hey, Dawn," he said after a moment.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Why did you strip?"

Dawn shrugged. "Got your attention, didn't it?"

* * *

Xander apologized to the rest of the group, going so far as to allow Jerry a free swing at him for making Allison cry. Jerry didn't take him up on the offer, but made it clear that Xander was on thin ice with him.

For the others, Xander apologized for his behavior, told them that their work, while not stellar, was nowhere near as bad as he had led them to believe. He showed them a few simple ways to clean it up, and helped them do so. He spent much of the rest of the day working his ass off securing the wall frames to the floor, hanging the two doors, securing the doors, and hanging drywall.

While he was doing this, Dawn, Sam and Dean read through the dossiers to try to figure out who in their little group was most likely to be involved the occult, which meant most likely to have known about this outbreak beforehand, which meant maybe, just maybe, they could have caused it.

Which meant that maybe they could stop it, too.

They found very little.

* * *

That evening, it became apparent to both Dean and Xander that Sam had gotten over his intimidation and finally up and kissed Dawn.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Dean said. "This is something I do not need to see."

"You're just jealous," Dawn said, pulling her hands out from under Sam's shirt as he performed a similar action.

"Hell yeah I am."

Xander smacked him on the arm.

"What? I meant of the action, not the specifics. Sorry, Dawn, you're not my type."

"Can we, um, not do this at the moment?" Sam asked, standing up to face the two elders.

"Not all together? Sure," Xander said. He put his arm around Sam's shoulder. "Let's take a walk."

"Xander!" Dawn said. Xander turned around. "Go easy on him."

"Sure thing," he said with a wink. "No bruises."

Dean and Dawn watched Sam and Xander walk out of the home furnishings section of Sears. Dean walked over and sat down on the bed next to her.

"This the part where you give me a big speech about staying away from your brother, or making sure my intentions are honorable, or telling me that if I hurt him you'll end me? Because I'm pretty sure that's what Xander's doing."

"Sammy can take care of himself," Dean said. "Or at least he thinks he can. Tells me that all the damn time. Here's all I'm going to say: Sam's my brother, and I love him, though if you tell him that, I will end you. Kid's got some issues though. His last girlfriend was killed by a demon. Held against a ceiling and set on fire. Burned the house down."

"I know," she said. "He told me."

Dean nodded. "You seem a like a good kid. I think he actually likes you. I don't know whether what you two have going is gonna continue after we're all out of here, or if it's just because of a tense situation. Whatever. Just uh… know what you're getting into. And make sure he does to."

Dean cleared his throat and gave her a solid pat on the leg. "Okay. That's about enough of that. I need a beer. You want?"

Dawn smiled at him. "You really care about him."

"He's my brother. He's all I've got."

Dawn nodded and slipped on her shoes. "Let's go get that beer."

* * *

Xander waved at Jason, who was about thirty feet away from them, staring daggers at Sam. Jason made no move to show he realized Xander was there.

"What's his deal?" Xander asked.

"He's kinda weird. He's been keeping an eye on me for a couple days now. Maybe he doesn't trust me."

"Huh," Xander said. "I'll talk to him tomorrow."

"Maybe have Dawn do it. He seems to like her well enough." He pointed away from the food court. "We should go that way. If I had my guess, my brother and your sister will be getting a beer in about three minutes."

"Done this before?" Xander asked.

"No, I just know Dean."

"Fair enough. And Dawn's not my sister."

"There are ten people in this mall, and exactly two who believe that's even close to being true, and one of them's you, and the other isn't me."

"Fair enough," Xander said. "And it actually makes what I'm going to say easier. I'm not going to threaten you physically, though I think we both know I could take you."

Sam looked at him like he'd grown another head. "I've got four inches and thirty pounds on you, most of which is muscle, and I've been training my whole life. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a fight, but…"

"I get angry and Buffy hits people," Xander said.

"Ah, not above cheating, I see."

"Well, where's the fun when you just lose all the time?"

Sam laughed, and Xander smiled at him.

"I'm sure you know about the speech by now," Xander said. "Whether you've gotten it in the past, or just seen the father figure in TV and movies trying to intimidate the boyfriend. You know what I'm talking about."

Sam nodded.

"I love Dawn. It's almost unhealthy how much I love that girl. The amount of pain I would endure, or have her sister cause… it's not right. I could be charged with crimes against humanity just for the things I think about doing." He sighed.

"We grew up on a Hellmouth. It wasn't easy for any of us, but the one thing we all agreed on, all of us. Dawn has to be protected. From everything. Too often, that included protecting her from life. I think we've learned not to do that as much, now, but we have to fight every instinct not to."

He looked up at Sam. "Dawn is the most precious thing in the world to us. Please don't hurt her."

* * *

End Chapter 9


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Eight**

Erica handed a thick manila envelope to Xander.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Letters," she said. "Everyone we could think of, with addresses as complete as we could remember."

"Oh, wow," Xander said. "Great. I guess we should keep this up on the roof for whenever the chopper comes back."

"How are we going to hook it to the winch?" Erica asked.

Xander shrugged. "Duct tape? I guess we should keep a roll of that up there, too."

"You guys don't have letters to anyone in there," Erica said.

"Which guys?"

"You guys. You and Dawn, Sam and Dean."

"I'm pretty sure everyone Dawn and I know is aware of our predicament. I'll check with the brothers, though, thanks."

"Hey, Xander?" Erica said.

"Yeah?"

"What happened yesterday morning?"

Xander sighed. "It's a complicated question. But um. What I guess it comes down to is uh… I kind of cracked up a little."

Erica nodded. "Huh. That gonna happen again?"

"Not if Dawn has anything to say about it. She'll kick my ass if it does."

"Good," said Erica.

"Okay," Xander said. "Well, I'm gonna take this up to the office, see if the brothers have anything to add. Who's on the roof right now?"

"I think I saw Jason headed up there about fifteen minutes ago."

Xander nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Erica."

Xander jogged up to the administrative office and found Dean napping in the corner. He smacked Dean in the head with the envelope.

"Screw off," Dean mumbled.

"Where's your brother?" Xander asked.

"Where's Dawn?" Dean replied. Xander grunted and left the man to his sleep.

Xander headed to the food court and found Jerry and Allison having a snack. Neither of them had seen Dawn or Sam, but said they'd tell them he was looking for them if they did.

He checked the electronics store – the one with the small yet cozy and comfortable couches – and the home furnishings store, and pretty much anywhere else that would make good make out spots, but he didn't find them anywhere. And then he had a genius idea.

"Dawn," he said into his radio, "it's Xander. Where are you?"

"She's on the roof."

Xander jumped and turned around to see Luis carrying a few pillows up the stairs.

"Saw her and Sam headed up there about ten minutes ago," Luis said.

"Okay, thanks," Xander said. He walked past the food court, waving to Jerry and Allison, then headed up the stairs to the roof and pushed the door open.

A loud crack startled him, and Xander felt a sharp biting sensation running up his left arm. The surprise knocked him back down the stairs, and he felt and heard at least one crack as he fell. He distinctly heard Dawn scream his name before his head hit the floor and everything went black.

* * *

"Nice and secluded," Dawn said, grabbing Sam's shirt and pulling him down for a hard kiss.

"It's um," Sam said between kisses, "a bit open, actually."

"Sure, to the zombies, but I'm willing to bet they won't tell."

"Also kind of cold," Sam said. Dawn planted herself against the wall, undid the top button of her blouse and pulled Sam close to pin herself down.

"Well I guess you'll just have to keep me warm, then."

Sam dove back in for another round. Just as Dawn was really starting to get into it, Sam's forehead smacked into hers and, dazed, she pulled away from him in time to see him fall to the ground.

"Sam, what –"

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

Dawn was suddenly aware that Jason was standing over Sam pointing a gun at him. He looked pissed.

"I mean, what the fuck, Dawn?"

"Jason, what the hell are you doing? Give me that gun before you hurt someone!"

Dawn reached for the gun, but Jason swung it around at her, and she backed off.

"I thought we had something!" Jason said, his face contorted in a righteous rage. "But of course, you're just like all the other whores."

"Jason, what the hell are you talking about?" Dawn asked.

"Oh right," he snarled. "Pretend in front of your new tool like you don't know what I'm talking about. Pretend that all those smiles, all the little touches, the laughs, pretend they meant NOTHING! You think you can just do that to me?"

"Jason, I honestly don't know what is going on here, but if you will just calm down, then I'm sure –"

"Don't tell me what to do!" he yelled. "You're nothing! Just a stupid fucking girl!"

Sam rolled over and lunged at Jason and the gun. Jason managed to step out of the way, and kicked Sam in the stomach. As he turned, Dawn lunged at him again. She grabbed his arm and tried to wrest the gun from his hand. Jason ripped his arm away from Dawn and smashed her across the face with the gun.

As Sam stood up to attack him again, Jason grabbed Dawn by the shoulders and pressed the gun to her temple.

"Back the fuck off," Jason said.

Sam stood and raised his hands. "No need to get trigger happy," he said.

Dawn's radio crackled to life. "Dawn, it's Xander, where are you?"

"Don't you dare fucking answer that, you cunt," Jason said. He nodded at Sam. "Over by the door." He kept the gun firmly pressed against Dawn's head. Jason glanced over the edge of the mall, then moved himself and Dawn closer to the center of the roof. "Wouldn't want to take any missteps."

"Whatever you say," Sam said. He took a few slow, small steps toward the roof door.

"So what is it?" Jason said, burying his nose in Dawn's hair and inhaling deeply. "Is it the chiseled jaw? The muscles?"

He groped her breast roughly through her blouse. "Or does his girly hair just make you all wet?"

"Don't do it, man," Sam said.

"Shut the fuck up!" Jason yelled. "You don't know! What we had! What could have been, you don't know how we felt!"

"There's no we, you psycho fuck, and there never was" Dawn spat.

"Great idea, bitch, insult the guy with the gun to your head. You don't know how good we could have had it," he said. He ripped her blouse open to allow himself easier access to her breasts, and raked his nails across her skin. Dawn shuddered in disgust. "You like that, don't you, bitch?" Jason whispered into her ear. His hand slipped under her bra as he glanced up to make sure Sam was watching. "You're just a dirty little whore, aren't you?"

Jason nipped at her ear lobe, sucking the end of it into his mouth. He lowered his lips to her neck and dragged his tongue along her skin, and pulled her closer to him to make sure she could feel him pressing against her ass.

"You don't want to do this, man," Sam said as Jason's hand wandered lower. He unbuttoned Dawn's jeans and pushed the zipper down.

"No," Jason said, his hand sliding under Dawn's panties. "This is exactly what I want to do." It took every ounce of Dawn's concentration not to attack Jason. If it wasn't for the constant reminder of the gun pressed to her temple, she'd have planted him on the ground in a second. As it was, she didn't think she was faster than his trigger finger.

"You're just digging yourself deeper. You think a girl that looks like her would ever want to touch a sick, pencil-dicked little fuck like you?" Sam said, trying to draw Jason's attention and anger, hoping his rage would make him mess up.

"Shut the fuck up!" Jason yelled. She bit down hard on her lip so she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream, but she couldn't stop the tears from escaping her eyes. He brought his hand out of her pants and inhaled her scent deeply.

"You probably can't even get it up," Sam said.

"Shut up!"

"Have to rely on guns to get girls close to you. Or is it even girls you really want? Probably just a limp-dicked little faggot. Who is it you're jealous of here, me? Or her?"

"You shut your fucking mouth!" Jason yelled. He pulled the gun away from Dawn and pointed it right at Sam. At that moment, the door opened. Jason's arm swung wide and he pulled the trigger.

"Xander!" Dawn yelled. She thrust her head backwards into Jason's nose, shattering it and spraying her hair and neck with his blood. She sprinted for the door as Sam hurled himself toward Jason.

As Dawn reached the stairs, she saw Xander lying on the landing, his body twisted at all the wrong angles. She ran down the steps, kneeling in the slowly expanding pool of Xander's blood. Dawn pulled off her blouse and pressed it hard against Xander's wound.

"Xander. Xander. Xander, come on, you have to wake up. Come on, Xander, I can't do this without you. Come on! SAM!"

Dawn grabbed her radio. "Somebody, anybody, please come help me, I'm on the stairs to the roof and Xander's been shot."

She dropped her radio on the ground and pressed her blouse against his arm. Up on the roof, she heard the gun fire again.

"Sam!" she yelled. A body slammed into the wall hard, shaking the structure. She heard footsteps slowly approaching the door, and placed herself between Xander and the door, determined to protect him.

"Dawn?" Sam called.

"Sam!" she said. "Down here. Help, he's hurt!"

Sam fairly leapt down to the landing just as Luis and Dean got into the stairwell.

"Jesus Christ," Luis said.

"Dean," Sam said. "Jason's on the roof, and he needs to be tied up."

"Jason did this?" Dean asked, surprised. "What the fuck happened?"

"We'll talk later, just take care of him," Sam said. Dean nodded and ran back into the mall to find some rope. "Luis, I need you to help me move Xander to the clinic."

"Of course," Luis said. He and Sam carefully lifted Xander's limp form. Dawn kept her blouse pressed firmly on Xander's wound.

"Are you going to be okay until we get to the clinic?" Sam asked her.

Dawn looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I've dealt before, I can do it now," she said.

Sam nodded at Luis, and the three of them got moving.

* * *

"What's going on?" Jerry asked. Dean was running past.

"Jason shot Xander, I'm getting rope to tie him up, see if Sam needs any help!" Dean told him, not slowing his stride in the least.

Jerry and Allison headed over to the roof access to see if there was anything they could do. They saw Luis and Sam carrying Xander to the clinic.

"Do you need anything?" he asked. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Either of you ever treat a bullet wound?" Sam asked. They all kept moving toward the clinic.

"I've had some first aid," Allison volunteered.

"Well, come with us, then, we'll probably need all the help we can get," Sam said.

Jerry looked them all over, and took a good look at Dawn; her bruised face; the red, irritated skin on her chest, which was covered in scratches; her unbuttoned blood stained pants that were barely holding themselves up; the blouse she held to Xander's wound; the back of her head and neck, covered in blood.

"What the hell happened?" he asked.

"Jason attacked us," Sam said. "We'll go into it later. You should go see if you can help Dean deal with him."

Jerry nodded and stopped following them. He watched for another few seconds, then turned and headed for the roof.

* * *

"Come on, Otis, I know you've gotta have something in here!" Dean said.

"Here it is!" Otis yelled from the other side of his warehouse. "Here, here."

Dean ran over to Otis and grabbed the rope. "Great," he said. "Now go see if you can help Xander." He took a few steps, then paused. "And take some tools. He got shot, and I have no idea how stocked that clinic is."

Dean sprinted for the roof. He reached the stairwell landing and stepped carefully around the pool of Xander's blood, ran up to the door and glanced around. He followed a trail of blood to one side of the small shed that enclosed the stairs.

He found only Jerry, looking out over the crowd of zombies.

"Jerry?" Dean said. Jerry turned to him and smiled weakly, then looked back out at the zombies.

"Hi, Dean."

Dean looked at him warily. "Jerry, where's Jason?"

"Did you see what he did?" Jerry asked.

"He shot Xander, I know," Dean said. He held up the rope. "That's why I got this."

Jerry shook his head. "He didn't just shoot Xander. He assaulted Dawn."

"He what?"

"Dawn," Jerry said. "Her hair was bloody. She had a growing bruise on her face. Her chest was scratched up, and her jeans were…. He assaulted her. Sexually. And Dawn knows how to fight."

"Okay…" Dean said.

"Allison doesn't know how to fight, Dean," Jerry said. "She has to be protected. I couldn't let someone who would do that to Dawn stay anywhere near my Allison."

Dean closed his eyes and steeled himself for the question he had to ask even though he knew the answer.

"Jerry, where is Jason?"

Jerry nodded out at the sea of zombies. "He slipped."

Dean threw the rope onto the roof and grabbed Jerry by the shoulder. "You go to the food court," he said. "You go to the food court and you don't move unless me or my brother comes to get you, do you understand me? You don't leave that place for anything. Not to take a shit, not if you hear someone scream, not if God himself appears before you as a burning bush and gives you a couple of stone tablets."

Jerry nodded. Dean shook his head and ran off back into the mall.

* * *

End Chapter Ten


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer, etc., in first chapter

* * *

"Let me in here," Erica said. She brushed past Otis and Allison to look at Xander. They had torn his shirt off and were holding bandages to his arm. "How is he?" she asked.

"The bullet wound isn't horrible," Sam said, grabbing another bandage and holding it to Xander's arm. "It's just like a long gash, his arm must have been extended. But we need to stop the bleeding before we see to his other injuries."

"Like what?" Erica asked.

"His leg," said Luis. "His other arm. I think a couple of ribs."

"Cauterize it," Erica said.

"How?" asked Allison. "We don't have anything that can –"

"Yes we do," Erica said. "Sam, give me your gun."

Sam looked up at her. "What?"

"Your gun, your gun. Give it to me. I also need a pair of pliers. And a match."

"What are you going to do?" Dawn asked.

Erica looked up. She hadn't even seen Dawn. The girl had drawn into herself and seemed to be hiding in the corner.

"I'm going to use the gunpowder to stop the bleeding," Erica said. Otis handed her a set of pliers. She looked up at Sam, who looked at Dawn. Dawn nodded once, slowly, and Sam handed Erica his pistol. She ejected the clip that was in it and pulled out a couple of bullets. She used the pliers to unscrew the casing.

"Hold his arm up," she said. Luis turned Xander's arm as best he could so the wound was facing upward. Erica winced at seeing the full length of the wound – it looked like the bullet had ripped into his flesh from the middle of his forearm to his bicep. Luckily, it appeared to have missed any major veins.

Erica slowly tapped out the gunpowder into the wound, making sure there was no break in the line she poured. The gash was so long that she had to empty the other bullet as well.

"Match, anyone?" she asked.

Otis handed her a lighter, as well. She grabbed a piece of paper and rolled it up.

She looked at Sam. "Do we have any morphine?"

"Why?"

"Because this is going to hurt like hell, and it might wake him up."

"In the fridge," she said. She grabbed a small key from the desk, unlocked and opened the fridge and took out some morphine. She drew a small amount into a syringe, and nodded.

"Everybody stand back," Erica said. "This won't be pretty."

She struck the lighter lit the rolled up paper. She held the fire as far away from herself as she could, and barely touched the flame to the edge of the gunpowder. There was a loud bang, and smoke filled the room. Xander sat straight up, screaming in pain.

"Hold him down!" Allison said. Sam and Luis pressed Xander back down to the table. Allison stepped up and injected the morphine into his arm. Xander slowly stopped screaming, but he stayed awake. His breath was ragged, and shallow.

"What," he said between breaths, "what… happened?"

Dawn was by his side in an instant. "You saved me," she said, brushing some hair from his face. "You always do."

"Didn't know… needed… to." He groaned a little more.

Dawn looked at Allison, and then glanced at the morphine. Allison nodded, and drew half as much morphine from the bottle as she had the first time. She injected this into Xander's arm as well, and he smiled as he passed out.

"We need to set his breaks now," Sam said.

"I know how to do this," Allison said. "We learned this."

Sam nodded. "Erica. Can you take Dawn and get her some clean clothes?"

"Of course," Erica said. She took Dawn's arm, but Dawn resisted.

"I need to stay with him," she said.

"Dawn," Sam said, placing his hand on her shoulder. She shied away from his touch, and he pulled his hand back. "Dawn, you need to go take care of yourself. We're going to take care of him. Once you've cleaned up, you can come right back. Okay?"

"Dawn?" Erica said, pulling Dawn's arm. "Come on, honey, let's go get you cleaned up."

Dawn nodded, and allowed Erica to lead her out of the clinic. She walked backwards, keeping her eyes on Xander as long as she could.

* * *

"This place is a mess."

Dean looked up from the papers he was reading and saw Sam, covered in blood, standing at the administrative office door.

"Speak for yourself," Dean said.

Sam looked down at his clothes and his hands. "Fair point. What'd you do with Jason?"

"Nothing," Dean said. "Is it true he, you know… was doing things to Dawn?"

Sam nodded. "Right in front of me. It was the most disgusting, vile… I can't even think about it. What do you mean nothing?"

"Jerry figured it out," Dean said, ignoring the question. "He saw Dawn, he heard Jason attacked, and put two and two together."

"That's how you found out?"

Dean nodded.

"So where's Jason now?" Sam asked.

"Zombie food."

"What?"

Dean put the papers down on the desk. "Jerry got to him before I did."

"And he just killed him?"

"Sent him over the edge, apparently. Said he couldn't let a guy who could do things like that be anywhere near his daughter. How's Xander?"

Sam sighed. "Unconscious, for now. Dawn's with him. Erica managed to get his gunshot wound closed, and we set and splinted his broken arm and leg, and wrapped his ribs. That's… about the best we can do. Well, Erica stitched up his arm, too. I guess… she knows how to sew up a turkey or something, I don't really know. She's good with a needle, though."

"Should move him somewhere more comfortable, now that the bleeding's done," Dean said. He picked up the papers again. "Dawn's gonna want to sleep near him. Should see about getting him somewhere that'll be easier on her. Not like this place is sterile, anyway."

"I don't really think we should move him, but we'll see what Dawn says. What are you reading?"

"Jason's file," said Dean.

"We already went through it. There's nothing there."

"I already went through it, you mean," Dean said. "And it turns out there is something there, it just slipped out of the fucking folder." He smacked the paper on the desk, hard, and stood up. "God, this should never have happened. If I'd just been a little more careful, looked a little harder, we could have known –"

"This isn't your fault, Dean," Sam said.

"Isn't it? Really? Then tell me, little brother, who else here missed the fact that the kid spent time in juvie for assault? Huh? And who else didn't see that he was brought up on three separate attempted rape charges? Or that the reason he looks like a football player is because he walked on at Ohio State and was a promising talent until he was kicked off the team because of steroids. Did you miss that Sam? Or was it me? Exactly who was it who didn't see these things?"

"Anybody could have missed it," Sam said.

"Yeah, well anybody didn't. I did. And now he's dead, and Xander's shot, and Dawn is just…" Dean shook his head and tossed the papers on the desk and flopped back into the chair. "I messed up."

"Where did he get the gun, that's what I want to know," Sam said.

"What are you talking about? We gave it to him yesterday," said Dean.

Sam shook his head. "I took that one back after we were done getting gas."

"Oh, hell," Dean said. "Gloria."

"What?"

"Gloria. Remember? Right after we all got here, Xander said he thought she had snuck in and taken a gun."

"You're saying Jason did it?" Sam asked.

"Or he found the one she took and never said anything."

"What'd you do with the gun?" Sam asked.

"Me? I didn't do anything with it, the gun was gone when I got there."

"So where –?"

"Fuck," Dean said, rising from the desk and heading out the door. "Jerry."

* * *

Dean approached Jerry like a raging storm, throwing things out of his way and knocking things down to get to him, ignoring Sam's pleas to calm down and slow down. He was on a mission.

"What did you do with it?" Dean said. He stalked up to Jerry, who was getting a drink from one of the soda fountains, grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. "What the hell did you do with it?"

"With what?" Jerry asked, wide eyes showing his fear.

"With the gun, Jerry. The gun Jason shot Xander with. Where is it?"

"What's going on?"

Dean looked over his shoulder and saw Allison staring at him. He released Jerry and stepped back from him.

"Just asking your dad a question," Dean said. "Got a little overexcited."

"It's all right, sweetie," Jerry said. "We're just talking. Go see what Erica's doing."

"No, Dad," she said. "I'm tired of you trying to keep me ignorant of what's going on. I'm seventeen, and I know I'm not the smartest girl in the world, or even in this mall, but I'm old enough to know that things are crappy. People are dying here, and I'm old enough to know what's going on, and I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's happening."

"Allison," Dean said, "this is really not the time for you to –"

"What the hell do you know about it?" Allison said, stepping up to Dean. "You're so busy playing monster hunter that you don't know what's going on in here. You don't know that Erica and Luis have taken up with each other, or that Jason cried himself to sleep the first three days, or that while you guys are up there sitting in your office like you run the place, the rest of us are making sure that this place isn't falling apart! That Otis wanders around all hours of the day muttering about losing control, and my dad and I are now the only family we have left in the world. So don't tell me when it is and is not time for me to do something, because you don't know anything!" Allison stomped her foot for emphasis.

Dean took a step back. "Uh, yeah. Okay." He glanced down at the floor.

"Oh, shit," she said.

"Um," said Dean.

Sam looked at the floor. He looked at Allison. He looked at Jerry. "But…"

"It's not her fault," Jerry said. "She can control it most of the time. Please don't… don't hurt her. Don't tell… anyone."

"Hurt her? Hurt HER?" Dean asked. "You're joking, right?"

"It's been… so hard. For all of us," Jerry said. "I couldn't let anything…"

Dean held up a hand to stop Jerry. "First, answer my question. We'll deal with this in a minute."

Jerry rolled his eyes. "I kicked it over the edge."

Dean sighed. "Okay. Now the three of us need to go see Dawn."

Allison, Jerry and Sam looked at each other.

"Uh," said Sam, "which three."

"Me and them," said Dean. "No offense, little brother, but if I were Dawn, I wouldn't want to see your face for about a year."

"What?" Allison said. "Why not?"

"Later, honey," Jerry said, taking her hand. "I'll tell you, I promise, just… later."

* * *

"How are they?" Dean asked.

Erica shrugged. "I can't tell about him, he's just out of it. And she just sits there, holding his hand and waiting for him to wake up. Half the time I can't tell if she's awake or not."

Dean nodded. "Well, look, we have to talk to her about some kinda sensitive stuff. Do you mind, uh…"

"Making myself scarce? Not at all."

"Thanks," Dean said. He held the door open and allowed Erica to slip past him, then let Jerry and Allison in and shut the door. "Let me do the talking," he told them. He leaned down across from Dawn and looked at her, studying her face for any sign she was aware of his presence.

"You can stop staring," Dawn said, startling Dean. She glanced at him, and then let her eyes drift back to Xander.

"I don't want to interrupt anything," he said. "I know you want to stay here with him, and I get that, I do. But I think we might have a situation."

"I don't care," Dawn said.

"Yeah, but –"

Dawn looked into his eyes. "Xander means more to me than the rest of you people combined, so if you think I'm going anywhere, you're stupider than you look."

"I'm not asking you to go anywhere," Dean said, ignoring the dig. "You can stay here the whole time, I – that is, we, just need to ask you… something."

"What?" Dawn asked.

"I think Allison might be a Slayer."

"You what?" Jerry said.

"I what?" asked Allison.

Dawn sighed. "Why do you think that?"

"I pissed her off, and she stomped on the floor in the food court. The floor cracked."

"Maybe it's cheap tiling. Maybe it's old."

Dean shrugged. "Maybe. But I don't think so."

Dawn looked at Allison. "Do you have dreams? Dreams in which you are girls from different time periods? Always strong, always fighting, always with monsters that you never dreamed were real?"

"I… yeah."

"Tell me some of them."

Allison looked at her father for permission.

"Don't ask him," Dawn said. "This is your choice."

"I um… I've been this black girl. Dirty hair. Rags for clothes. White face paint. Savage."

Dawn nodded.

"And an Asian girl. Beautiful and graceful, but it looked like she was in the middle of a war. And there was this man."

"You were a man?" Dean asked.

"There was a man in her dream," Dawn said. "Average height. Blonde hair. He wore a brown wool trench coat. You fought him with swords, in a room filled with candles, during the Boxer Rebellion."

"I… yes."

"He killed you."

"Yes."

"His name was Spike," Dawn said. She looked back at Xander. "I thought he was a friend, once upon a time."

Dawn glanced down, and with her free hand reached into her boot. She tapped something metallic on the side of the bed a couple of times. "Do you really want to know if you're a Slayer?"

"Now wait a minute," Jerry said. "We need to discuss –"

"The knowledge is her right," Dawn said. "What she does with it, or doesn't do, that's open for discussion. But knowing what she is? What she can do?" Dawn shook her head. "You don't have a say in that part."

Allison licked her lips. "I want to know."

Dawn lifted her arm and flung a knife as hard as she could at Allison. The girl stepped back, but caught the knife in one hand, almost a foot from her face.

"Congratulations," Dawn said. "You're a Slayer."

"*That* is how you tell?" Dean asked.

"Not unless we're already sure," said Dawn. "And not unless they need convincing."

"So what does this mean?" Allison asked.

"For the moment, nothing," said Dawn. "You know nothing, and you're untrained, and I'm not qualified to teach you. The only person here who is…" she nodded at Xander and squeezed his hand a little tighter.

"Okay," Dean said. "Um… well, thanks. For the confirmation. We'll let you get back to… sitting."

Dean shuffled Jerry and Allison out of the room, and was about to follow them when Dawn called him back.

"Yeah?" he said, poking his head back in the clinic.

"What happened to Jason?"

Dean considered his options. There was the truth, and then there was what was important.

"Jerry told me he slipped. Off the roof."

Dawn looked up at Dean. "Jerry?"

"That's what he told me."

Dawn stared at him for a moment before turning back to Xander. "Allison's a very pretty girl."

"Yeah."

Dawn nodded. "Thank you."

Dean closed the door and left her to her sitting.

* * *

"So what does this mean?" Luis asked. The entire group, sans Dawn and Xander, had gathered for an early dinner in the food court. Candle light provided most of the illumination – they wanted to preserve the gas in the generator as long as possible.

"I'm not entirely sure," Dean said. "I mean, we know the basics, but none of the history or the mythology."

"Right," said Sam. "It's… okay, incredible speed and strength, innate fighting ability. Historically, of course, vampires are the biggest enemy."

"Hence Vampire Slayer," said Dean. "But I'm pretty sure Dad told us that they've become kind of an all around demon fighter."

"And world saver, if the rumors are to be believed."

"World saver?" Allison asked.

Dean nodded and cut into the chicken breast in front of him. "Erica, this is delicious," he said. Erica smiled, and nodded her thanks. "Listen – and this is all just rumor – you all know about Sunnydale, right?"

The whole group nodded.

"Well, the way I heard it – again, just a rumor – is that there was this huge, ancient evil that was trying to basically end the world. The Slayer was the one who beat it. Slayer and her posse, anyway."

"Posse?" Otis asked.

Dean pointed over his shoulder toward the clinic. "Those two were there, I know that much. The whole group of 'em, they're like… the Impossible Mission Force of the supernatural world. All sorts of stories came out of that place over the course of a few years."

"How come I never heard about this?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged. "You were in college. And you weren't interested for a while before that."

"So how did I become a Slayer?" Allison asked.

"No idea," said Dean. "It used to be that it took the last Slayer dying to create a new one. But you said you've been like this for a while, and Buffy was definitely a Slayer. That's something they're going to have to answer."

"Speaking of them," Erica said. "I'm going to take Dawn some food."

"So," Jerry said, "what do we, you know… do?"

Dean shrugged. "Look, I don't know that much about them, but you've seen what's gone on here. They've got friends in the military, they've got a lot of good quality weapons – which means they've got resources – and they're good at what they do. I'm willing to bet they've got, you know, options. Things they can suggest. What those things are, I have no idea."

"I gotta go check on things," Otis said. He got up from the table and hobbled off toward his warehouse.

"So I can beat you up?" Allison asked.

Dean nodded. "Just on pure speed and strength, you can probably kick the ass of everyone in this mall."

They all kept discussing Allison's situation, what it might mean, what it would change. It was all speculation, but it kept their minds off of more worrisome topics.

Then Erica screamed.

* * *

End Chapter 11


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Nine**

Xander's breath was coming in short, shallow bursts, and his eye was tearing up because of the pain. His unbroken arm was clutching his chest.

"Oh, God," he said, attempting to catch his breath. "Stop. Please. Stop. It hurts."

"Sorry," Dean said with a wry smile. He had just finished regaling Xander with the story of the previous night's adventures. All of them, upon hearing Erica's terrified scream, had grabbed whatever weapons were handy and rushed to her aid, convinced the zombies had breached the mall.

"I just," Dean continued, "the vision of Luis wielding an umbrella the size of Rhode Island to attack a mouse is one that will amuse me to the end of my days."

"He just pulled it out of the middle of the table?" Xander asked, having caught his breath.

"Just ripped the damn thing up. I didn't even know they moved, and here he is, charging for zombies, screaming his head off like he's Mel Gibson in that Scottish movie, and the only thing we find is a mouse."

"What'd you do with it?"

"Well what did you think your breakfast was?"

Xander smiled. "So," he said. He looked down at his body. "I guess I'll be taking on more of a supervisory role now, rather than the hands on approach I previously preferred."

"Looks that way," Dean said. "But actually, after he got over his mouse killing escapades, Luis went to work on a little present for you. It should be done in about an hour, if all goes well."

"I look forward to it," Xander said. "So. I couldn't get the story out of Dawn. I don't actually know what happened yesterday, other than I got shot and broke some bones falling."

Dean nodded. "She wouldn't tell you?"

Xander shook his head. "She said that everything was fine, taken care of, and that I didn't need to worry about it."

"Smart girl, that one," Dean said. "What makes you think you'll get the story out of me?"

"You can't bat your eyelashes and pout your puppy dog eyes and get me to do your bidding," Xander said.

"Well, this conversation is going off in an entirely inappropriate direction," Dean said. He hopped up on one of the counters and told Xander what he knew, from Jason's criminal past, and how he had missed it, to Jason's assault on Sam and, more specifically, Dawn, that led to Xander being shot. He told Xander about Jason's death, and Jerry's reasons for doing what he did, and finished off with the story of Allison and the broken floor tile.

When the story was over, Xander was exhausted again.

"Let me tell, you," he said, "I am almost grateful I was unconscious for most of that. What about um… have Dawn and Sam…?"

Dean shook his head. "Sammy's backed off," he said. "Giving Dawn space. She's a tough girl, but that's not something you recover from in a few hours."

Xander nodded. "Probably for the best, anyway."

"Oh yeah," Dean said. "Just safer all around."

"Because when this is over, you guys will be going your way, and we'll go ours, and it's just easier to avoid emotional entanglements."

"Right."

The two men sat there in an uncomfortable silence.

Xander broke first. "Of course, we've got contacts and resources all over the country," he said. "If you guys ever need any help. Not that you would, necessarily. Just, you know. If."

"Yeah, I mean, we do pretty good on our own."

Xander nodded. "Right."

"But, you know, if you guys ever find yourselves in a tough spot…"

"Oh, yeah," Xander said. "But, well… we've got a few hundred people in the US. So… we can pretty much handle most stuff."

"Oh," said Dean. He shrugged. "Yeah."

"Aww," Dawn said. She was leaning against the door frame, and neither man had heard her approach. "You guys are like, trying to figure out a way to ask each other out, without really asking each other out. That's so cute."

"What?" said Xander. "That's not true."

"No, we weren't," Dean protested.

"Uh huh," said Dawn. "Well, whatever, you guys are like four days behind already. I've got Sam's number and he's got ours, so you can stop this painful excuse for courtship."

"For what?" Dean said.

"There's no courting here. Courting… not happening. Crazy girl."

"Uh huh," Dawn said. She approached Xander's bedside and patted his hand. "How you feeling?"

"Like I could pull the ears off a gundark."

"A what?" Dean asked. "Gundark? Is that some kind of demon?"

"Haven't you ever seen The Empire Strikes Back?" Xander asked.

"Oh, right," said Dean. "That's the one with the snow, right?"

Xander nodded.

"Which one is a gundark?"

"Well… you actually never see it on screen," Xander said. "But Han references it when Luke's been injured, and is lying in bed on Hoth…"

"See?" Dawn said. "And despite this, you still manage to get laid."

"Quite frequently, too," Xander said. "Though this zombie infestation is really hurting my per-week average."

"Oh, God, I don't need to know that," Dawn said.

"It's okay," Xander said, his voice at its most reassuring. "I'm sure we'll make up for it, once this thing passes. You know what Faith says, right? Hungry and horny." He shook his head. "She's not wrong."

Dawn whimpered.

"And, I mean, I've got your sister's weight up some, but she still watches her figure. So I guess one of those takes, you know. Precedence."

"Okay," Dean said, hopping off the counter. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "That's a little too much for me. I'm gonna see if Luis needs any help. Catch you kids in a while."

"So how are you doing?" Dawn asked once Dean was gone.

"Well, I got shot," Xander said. "And I broke a couple bones. I hit my head, which really hurts, and I think I twisted my ankle a bit. But you know. Alive. Hey."

Dawn looked up at him.

"You know if Jerry hadn't –"

"I know," Dawn said. "But he did."

Xander grasped her hand. "I'm sorry I didn't –"

"Xander, don't," she said. "You couldn't have known. Nobody knew."

"Buffy trusted me to protect you."

"And I'm alive," she said. "Which is more than I can say for a lot of other people. I'm alive, I'm relatively unharmed…"

"Relatively unharmed? Dawn, he –"

"I know," she said. "Trust me, I… I know what he did. But this isn't something we could have prepared for, something we could have seen coming. You cannot blame yourself for this. This wasn't your fault. There is nobody *to* blame, except… and he's dead now."

"You know I love you. Right?"

"I know, sweetie. I love you, too." Dawn smiled and patted his hand. "So, you owe Riley fifty bucks."

"What? I what?"

"Owe Riley fifty bucks."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Dawn said. "But he told me that you do in his letter. And he said that I should tell you 'banana.'"

Xander's smile disappeared, and he paled.

"And that I should then force you to tell me the story. It would be entertaining." She hopped up on his bed and lay down next to him. "So. Entertain me."

Xander cleared his throat. He shifted on the bed. He shifted again. He cleared his throat and shifted one more time. "Okay," he said. "Well. I can't tell you this story unless one of two things happens. You either have to swear to secrecy forever and ever, and I mean, like, if you die at the ripe old age of a hundred and thirty-seven and turn back into a green ball of energy, and live like that for a few billion years, and the rest of us are cosmic dust, you can *still* never tell anyone."

"Oh, God, this must be good. What's the other thing?"

"You tell me your most embarrassing secret as collateral."

"*Most* embarrassing?"

"Most."

"Wow," Dawn said. "Okay, I swear I'll never tell anyone, ever."

"Damn. I was hoping you'd go the other route."

Dawn patted his arm. "I know you were, sweetie. Now tell me the damn story."

Xander sighed. "Okay. So, a few years ago, I ran into Riley and Graham and all them once, in Johannesburg, and we all got together and got smashed. Sam wasn't there. Just us guys. So eventually, Riley and I are the only ones still, you know, awake, and we get onto the topic of Buffy – this is like a year and a half before your sister and I start going out.

"Anyway, so Riley is just trashed, and he tells me about… okay. You know in high school, when they're doing sex ed, they show you how to use a condom by putting it on a banana?"

"Yeah."

"Well, apparently at Buffy's high school in LA… um… Hemery? I think that's it. Anyway, they gave out bananas to, you know, practice on. And Buffy kind of… squashed hers. Ruined it. And Riley tells me that she never got any better at that."

"Oh, God," Dawn said. "But that means you owe him fifty bucks?"

"No," Xander said. "But the thing is, I didn't believe him. And he bet me fifty bucks that it was true, and I took the bet, because I figure, you know… no way I'm ever gonna find out unless I get drunk with your sister and she tells me herself. Which, in that case, worth the fifty."

Xander coughed. "So anyway… I guess the best thing to say is that… due to personal experience, I owe Riley fifty bucks."

Dawn looked horrified.

"Hey, you asked," Xander said. "Don't blame me if Riley has no idea what you would find funny."

Dawn considered the situation for a moment. "Does it say something about me, or about my sister, that I'm just happy that story didn't involve masturbation?"

Xander laughed. "I think it might say something about both of you."

Dawn rested her head against his shoulder.

"Besides," Xander said a minute later, "I think that's her story to tell."

* * *

"This… is amazing. I am awed," Xander said. He was sitting on his bed, looking at the device Luis had mocked up. He had taken one of the mall's battery-powered carts and one of the mall's wheelchairs and put them together in an amalgamation that would allow Xander a certain amount of mobility – at least on the second level of the mall.

"Well, you've kind of been taking care of us all," Luis said. "Best as anyone could, I figure. This was kind of… my chance to return the favor. I took it."

"I really appreciate it," Xander said. He patted a small open area on the side of the seat. "And you even built a place for a shotgun."

"Well, I was thinking crutches, but yeah, whatever."

"It's great," Xander said again. He sat up in his bed and swung his legs out. "Help me into it?"

Luis managed to manhandle Xander into the seat. Xander pulled his broken left leg up into the stirrup and leaned back into the chair. "Oh, man. This sitting up… this is the stuff. I really think it's gonna catch on."

"Check out the motor," Luis said. "Get a feel for how she moves."

Xander grabbed the steering wheel with his left hand and pressed on the pedal with his right foot. The cart jerked to a start and jumped forward.

"Whoa," Xander said. "Got some power here." He tried again, easing the accelerator down, and managed an easy control.

"Head of the class," Luis said, smiling. Suddenly, they heard a pounding sound from somewhere below them.

"Is that the door?" Xander asked. Luis leaned over the railing and looked at the floor below. The pounding got louder, and started coming from more places.

"Yeah," Luis said. "All the doors."

"Luis," squawked Dean's voice over the radio. "You with Xander?"

Luis unclipped his radio. "Yeah, Dean, what's up?"

"I don't know, but something just got those monsters riled up. You armed?"

"I can be in about a minute," Luis said.

"Do it," Dean said. "And get Xander to the food court. We'll check back when we know something."

"Come on," Luis said, clipping the radio to his belt. "My guns are on the way." He started off toward the food court.

"Hey," Xander called, driving up beside him.

"Yeah?" Luis asked.

Xander patted the cart. "Hop on. I'll drive."

* * *

"What do you see, little brother?" Dean asked over the radio. Dean was on the first floor of the mall, checking the entrances to ensure they were still blocked off.

"They're agitated, that's for sure," responded Sam. "I can't see anything specific that would have set them off, but there's a lot more movement than we've been seeing, and a lot more aggressive, too. They're pounding on walls, doors, everything, trying to get in."

"There's nothing out there to work them up?" Dean asked. He pushed on some of the crap they'd stuffed in front of one of the doors and as he moved to the next door, he cursed at the lack of solid building materials. This stuff would never hold up.

"Nothing," said Sam. "It's almost like they're… angry."

"Ten-four," Dean said. "Back with you in a minute." He clicked a dial on the radio and changed the channel he was transmitting on. "Otis, you there?"

Dean tugged on the barricade at the next door. "Otis, this is Dean. Come back." He clicked over to another channel. "Dawn, this is Dean, you there?"

"I'm at the food court," Dawn said. "What's up?"

"Otis there?" Dean asked.

"Haven't seen him," Dawn said. "Why?"

"Do me a favor? Take Luis and go check out the warehouse. We need the generator up for a few minutes so I can get the gate at Sears lowered and locked."

"Will do," Dawn said.

Dean set his own radio back to his channel and ran through the rest of the entrances, checking them all. He had just stopped for a minute to catch his breath when Dawn called him back.

"Dean, this is Dawn. Otis isn't here, but everything looks to be in working order. You want us to start up the generator?"

"Give me a minute to get to Sears and then turn it on. I'll call you on this channel when it's down."

"Got it," Dawn said. Dean sprinted down the hallway, and when he came to Sears, he whipped around and smacked the button to lower the gate. Once it was shut, he locked the gate and closed the doors behind it.

"We're good, Dawn, you can shut down the generator," he said into the radio. When there was no answer, he smacked himself in the forehead, switched over to Dawn's channel and repeated his message. There was still no answer. He clicked over one more.

"Luis, you there?"

"Dean, this is Xander," came the reply. "Luis left me his radio when he and Dawn went to check on Otis. What's up?"

Dean frowned. There was no way that Xander was in any shape to deal with anything. "No big," Dean said. "Just had to ask him a question."

Dean switched back to Sam's channel, told him what was going on and then hoofed it up to Otis's warehouse.

"Come on," Xander said, sitting in his cart with a shotgun across his lap. "You didn't think I was that stupid, did you?"

"Hoped," Dean said. He pulled a flashlight from his pocket and tossed it to Xander. "You're my eyes."

"First time I'll be more than one eye in a few years," Xander said. "This should be fun."

They moved forward, Dean in front with his gun drawn, Xander following behind, whirring along in his cart, the sound of which was drowned out by the generator. Xander shone his light around the warehouse before bringing it to rest on the generator. Dean stepped over to the generator and switched it off.

"Okay," Xander said. "Now what?"

"Find Dawn and Luis," Dean said. "And Otis if we can."

"We're over here," said Dawn's voice. Xander turned the light to the wall and they saw Dawn standing in a doorway they hadn't seen before. "You guys better come look," she said.

Dean stepped up on Xander's cart and rode with him over to the door. It was too small for the cart to fit through. Dean helped Xander out of the cart and handed him his crutches. Together, they navigated the door and followed Dawn down a flight of stairs.

"The door was open when we got here," she said, going slowly so Xander could keep up. "Once we got the generator on, we decided to check it out. Luis is still down here."

"What about Otis?" Dean asked.

"Still no idea. Which is lucky," she said. "I think Luis is about ready to kill him."

She led them down a short corridor and opened another door into a much longer corridor. "There are a bunch of pipes down here, and all sorts of valves and other stuff. We're guessing Otis has been here for so long that he's the only one who remembered that this place was still here. Or he actually didn't care if anybody found him out."

"Found out what?" Xander asked.

"It's better if you just see for yourselves," Dawn said. She led them down the corridor and opened a door on the right side of the hall. Inside, Luis was inspecting some pictographs on the wall. Xander and Dawn shone their lights along the wall.

"Oh my God," Xander said.

"This is it," said Dean. "This is all… son of a bitch! That's what he meant!"

"What's what he meant?"

"Otis," Dean said. "Goddammit. Allison said it yesterday, I just didn't catch it. Otis… she said he was always walking around muttering about…"

"Losing control," said Luis. He stood up. "We all thought he was just muttering… or, I mean, none of us have much control, and we thought…" He shook his head. "I never once thought it was this."

Dean looked over the drawings. "It's not voodoo," he said. "Or any script I recognize."

"How familiar are you with Sanskrit?" Dawn asked.

"You can read this?" asked Luis.

Dawn shook her head. "I can pick out a word here and there, but not enough to make sense of it."

"What words?" Dean asked.

Dawn pointed. "The. Um… church. Let's see… river. Oh, demon. That's a good one. That's about it. If we can get pictures of it, I'm sure we can translate it eventually. I just don't know enough to do it here."

Luis pulled a piece of paper off the wall. "This one is pretty much all I need," he said. He took the paper and handed it to Dean. "Translate that."

Dean looked down at the paper in his hand. It was in English, and it said 'how to raise the dead.'

A moment later, Allison showed up at the door. "Where the hell have you guys been? We've been looking all over for you."

"I guess the radio doesn't work down here," Dean said. "What's up?"

"It's Otis," she said. They all rounded on her.

"Where is he?" asked Dean.

"That's just the thing," she said. "Sam found him. He's outside."

"On the roof?" Xander asked.

"No," said Allison. "In the parking lot."

* * *

End Chapter 12


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer, etc., in first chapter

* * *

Xander considered his situation for a moment and realized that if he hadn't, on occasion, been slung over the shoulders of Buffy, Faith, Kennedy, Vi, and at least once by Chao-Ahn, being carried up the stairs by a seventeen-year-old girl would be one of the more humiliating experiences of his life.

As it was, he took a lecherous moment to enjoy the view. The Slayer metabolism was a wondrous thing.

"Okay," Xander said once Allison had put him down. "Where is he?"

"Walking slowly," Sam said. "I almost didn't see him, but there's always a little gap around him." He pointed out to the left. Everybody who had them raised their binoculars and looked off in that direction.

"By the light pole?" Xander asked.

"No, that's a zombie," said Sam. "I don't know why they're avoiding that one."

"Looks like Michael Jackson," Luis said. "Maybe that even creeps out zombies."

Sam brought the binoculars to his eyes. "Past the light pole about a hundred yards, and left about fifty. There's a small gap in the zombies and a short old black guy hunched over and walking away. That's Otis."

"So what do we do?" Dean asked.

"Not much we can do," Xander said. "He's way the hell out there, we're way the hell in here. Not like he'll come back if we ask nicely. Not like we can even ask."

"So what?" Erica asked. "He just gets away with it?"

"I don't know," said Xander. "I mean, he has to live with the idea that he caused one of the biggest massacres in the history of the human race. Would you call that getting away with it?"

"I would," Luis said. "Son of a bitch. He shouldn't get to –"

A loud crack rang out from their right, and those still watching Otis were treated to the sight of his head blowing open like an over filled balloon, and the subsequent feeding frenzy by the zombies right around him. Bits of Otis flew through the air at the fervor with which the zombies fed.

"He doesn't," Dawn said, lowering her rifle from her shoulder and resting the stock on the rooftop. Xander turned, and was about to say something to her, something about the taking of human life, about responsibility and how something like this would weigh on her conscience for years to come.

"Are you okay?" he asked instead.

Dawn shook her head. "Not for days. None of us are."

Dawn slung the rifle strap over her shoulder and walked back down the stairs

"Couldn't have gone for the leg?" Dean asked, once Dawn was out of hearing range. "Let him suffer a bit?"

"Dean," said Sam, "shut up."

"Come on," Allison said, stepping up next to Xander. "I'll take you back down."

Xander nodded. "Thanks."

"But try not to stare at my butt so much this time? It's a little creepy."

* * *

Xander managed to catch up to Dawn near the CVS and pulled his cart to a stop in front of her.

"What?" she asked, sounding annoyed.

Xander waved her over to him. "Hop on."

"Xander, what do you want?"

Xander rolled his eyes. "Would you just do a cripple a favor and get on the cart?"

Dawn sighed deeply but walked up and sat down next to Xander on his cart. He drove off.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Nowhere special," Xander said. He pulled the cart to a stop in front of the electronics store, grabbed his crutch and stood up. "Come on. Inside."

Dawn sighed again, but followed Xander inside the store. He walked over to one of the couches and sat down, resting his foot on the table in front of the couch, then patted the seat next to him. Dawn unslung the rifle from her shoulder, placed it next to the couch and sat down.

The two of them sat there in silence. Xander put his arm around Dawn's shoulders and pulled her closer. She scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. A minute later, Xander felt his shoulder dampen.

"I miss Buffy," Dawn said, sniffling through her tears. "I hate this place. It sucks, and it's only getting worse. It smells bad. We're surrounded by zombies, and I just killed a guy. Gloria and Jason are dead. And Otis. And we don't know what's going on in the world. For all we know, the zombies have won, and we're waiting for a rescue that's never gonna come."

"Well, yeah," Xander said. "But at least you've got your health…"

Xander could feel her laughing against his shoulder. "You're deranged."

"I know," he said. "But at least it's an entertaining derangement."

Dawn wrapped her arms around Xander. "What are we going to do?"

"Same as always," Xander said. "Figure things out. Fight. Live."

"Wait for Buffy?"

Xander shrugged. "Can't just wait, though. Wouldn't hurt if Sam and Dean could give Erica and Luis, and maybe Jerry some weapons training. Also wouldn't hurt if we started to give Allison a little training."

"We?" Dawn asked. She perked her head up. "As in… as in me also?"

Xander shrugged. "Well, I can't do a lot, physically. And if you are going to be a field watcher, you're going to need practice."

"So, I can do weapons training?"

Xander nodded. "Weapons, physical regimen, tactics, all that stuff. But first we have to convince her of what she can do."

"How can we do that?"

"It's different with every girl."

"I threw a knife at her head."

"Well, fun as that is, it's rarely enough to really make them believe," Xander said. "Trust me, I've done this a number of times. If they've seen someone catch a knife before, or something even close to that, they don't really get it. You gotta show them they can do something they *know* that they can't."

"Like what?"

He shrugged. "You're the watcher. You figure it out."

* * *

"So what is the point of all this?" Dean asked. He surveyed the hallway. Dawn had set up an obstacle course that looked like he was training for the Army, or football camp, or something.

"I need to get a baseline on the course which I can compare Allison against," she said. "Xander says we need to start her training, so I'm getting ready to convince her she's really a Slayer."

"And this necessarily involves me embarrassing myself?" He looked out over some of the obstacles – the wall in particular. "Are you sure this thing is safe?"

"It's totally safe," Dawn said.

"Okay," Dean said. He took off his jacket and handed it to Dawn then leaned down and tightened the laces on his shoes. After a few moments of stretching out, he rolled his neck and leaned down. "You got your little clicker thing?"

"You mean the stopwatch?" Dawn asked. "Yeah. Ready?"

Dean nodded.

"Go," Dawn said.

As soon as Dean moved, she started the stopwatch. He made it through the high steps quickly, climbed over the wall she'd erected, weaved in and out of a dozen traffic cones, and then sprinted about forty yards to the finish line. Dawn clicked the stopwatch.

"Nice," Dawn said as soon as Dean huffed his way back to her.

"Well? What's my time?"

"24.6 seconds," Dawn said. "Great time."

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

Dawn nodded. "Luis tested at about 27, your brother at 24 flat. Erica was 29.7."

"What?" Dean asked. "Sammy beat me? No, uh uh. You clicked the button wrong."

"Dean, it's not a competition, I'm just getting a baseline."

"No, no, I'm going again. Come on, get your watch ready."

"No," Dawn said. "This is ridiculous."

"Hey," Dean said, "I ran your stupid course. The least you can let me do is beat my brother at it."

"It's six-tenths of a second!"

"Right, so I should be able to make it up easily. Come on."

Dawn rolled her eyes and reset the stop watch. "Ready?"

"Any time," Dean said.

"And… go."

* * *

"Now you have to watch yourself on this course," Xander said. As he carted Allison past the food court. "We've had one casualty already."

"What happened?" Allison asked.

"Dean got a bit too competitive and slipped on one of the obstacles and… boom." Allison winced, and Xander smiled at her. "Don't worry, though. You'll be fine. Your balance is much better than Dean's."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. Tons. You could be standing on a rope twenty feet in the air with people throwing pickles at you, and you should be okay."

"Pickles?" she asked.

Xander shrugged. "Stranger things have happened. Here we are."

Xander pulled his cart to a stop near the beginning of Dawn's obstacle course. On the wall, Sam was finishing off a chart of all the times Dawn had collected so far, from her own time of 25.8, to Jerry's 31.6, to Dean's last Did Not Finish. There was a space open at the top. Everybody was gathered around to watch Allison.

"Wow," Allison said, looking at the crowd. "Way to make me nervous."

"Don't worry about it," Dawn said, stepping up to Allison. "You're going to do fine."

"Should I stretch out first?" Allison asked.

"If you want to," Xander said.

"Actually, you know what?" said Dawn. "Don't. Just run it. No stretching, no preparing, no nothing. Just walk up to the line and do it."

"Really?" Allison asked.

"Yeah," Dawn said. "Well, I think Dean needs to be embarrassed a little more."

"Thanks," Dean said. He was sitting in a folding chair holding a cold compress to his crotch. "Because that's really what's wrong here, is that I haven't been embarrassed enough."

Allison smiled and stepped up to the line. On Dawn's signal, she was off like a shot, through the high-steps, vaulting over the wall, weaving between the cones and then, at the end, forty yards of pure sprinting. At the end, she wasn't even out of breath. Xander glanced at Dawn's stopwatch and frowned.

"Is that right?" he asked.

"Close as I can make it."

"What?" Allison asked, as she jogged back up to them.

"Not quite as fast as I had figured," Xander said. "Sam? Care to add this to your standings?"

Sam glanced at the stopwatch. He was careful, Xander noticed, not to react, which Xander appreciated. The less surprised other people were, the more surprised Allison would be.

"Here we go," Sam said. He wrote up Allison's name in the empty slot at the top of his chart, and next to it her time.

"You're kidding me," Allison said. "That's a joke." Allison was looking at everyone like they were crazy. "That's not even possible."

"It is for you," Xander said.

"And you thought it was slow?"

Xander nodded rhythmically. "I don't think you pushed yourself. I think you're still too used to hiding who you are to be ready to put out a full effort. But we're gonna try to break you of that."

Allison stared at the chart. "So Dean," she said. "You got 24.6, huh?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Well look at it this way," she said. "I only beat you by 5.4 seconds. That's not so bad."

"Oh, oops," said Sam. He walked up to the wall and crossed out the number he'd written. "Sorry, my handwriting sucks on walls." He corrected the figure so it looked less like 19.2, and more like the correct number of 14.2.

"Oh," said Allison. "So. 10.4 seconds."

"Yeah," said Xander.

"And that's slow?"

"Little bit," said Dawn.

Allison whimpered.

* * *

Xander woke with a start, drenched in sweat. He grasped around on his bed and found his flashlight. "Hello?" he called, turning on the light and waving it around the room. He glanced at his watch. It was a minute to midnight. "Dawn? Are you here?"

In the distance, Xander heard the sound of gunfire. He grasped around again and found his radio. "Hello?" he said into the radio. "Dean, Sam, anybody, are you there?"

A moment later, the radio crackled to life. "Xander, where are you?" Luis asked. Xander heard gunfire more clearly through Luis's transmission. It was loud, and it was close.

"I'm in bed, in the home furnishings store. What's going on?"

"They're coming in," Luis said. A shotgun went off in the background. "The fucking zombies… they're inside the mall!"

Xander glanced at his watch again. It ticked to twelve.

* * *

End Chapter Thirteen


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer, etc., in the first chapter

* * *

 **Day Ten**

Xander struggled out of his bed. He levered himself up with his crutch and hopped over to his cart. From there, he reached out with this crutch and lifted the bag of weapons from his bedside and placed it next to him in the cart.

He turned the key on the cart and headed out into the mall, driving toward the gunfire. He dropped his good hand from the wheel, reached into the bag and pulled out the shotgun. He held the gun between his knees and loaded shells into it as he drove. He glanced over the railing, but didn't see any zombies.

Xander drove past the food court and saw everyone who was left either firing a gun, reloading a gun or trying to brace something against the door.

"Out of the way!" he yelled. As Sam, Luis and Erica dove out of the way, he sped his cart directly into the hallway, knocking over a couple of zombies as he drove. He raised his shotgun and fired directly into the face of one of the creatures, splattering its brains across the hallway. He fired twice more, clearing out enough room that he could maneuver the cart.

Xander jerked the wheel hard, hit the gas, flipped it into reverse and slammed the cart back against the door. He pulled up his shotgun and fired again, and then, with considerable pain, began to crawl out of the cart. He soon found himself being dragged by Sam and Dean as Dawn provided covering fire, holding the zombies at bay.

"That should slow them down," Xander said. "At least act as a bit of a road block. How long has this been going on?"

"Five minutes," Dean said, plugging another monster in the head. It landed on the concrete floor with a loud crack, and the black ooze they had all come to expect leaked out under Xander's cart. The cart, though, seemed to be confusing the zombies, at least for the moment.

"Well," Xander said, leaning back against the railing. "Anybody got any bright ideas?"

Luis raised his hand. "I had a thought."

"Don't keep me waiting," Xander said.

Luis pointed to the railing Xander leaned against. "Well we got this big pit, right? Just a whole floor we're not using?"

Xander nodded.

"So?" asked Dean.

"So we use it," said Luis. "Knock out the railing, get some stuff up here to… to block their path so we funnel them to the edge. Then we all get on the other side to draw them nearer and…" he whistled, miming going over a cliff with his hand.

Dean, Dawn, Sam and Xander looked at each other.

"Stupid?" Luis asked.

"No," said Sam. He scratched his head, his hand next to his eyes to keep him from looking in one particular place. "But it's missing something."

"What?" asked Erica.

"Bait," said Dawn, looking directly at Erica. "Somebody's going to need to be inside the barricades, so they're not trying to go left or right."

"Bait?" asked Jerry.

"Yeah," said Xander, keeping his eyes solidly on the floor. Dean nodded, and turned to the railing, his eyes dragging slowly.

Luis caught on quickly and looked away.

Allison looked around at them. "What? Why is nobody looking at – oh," she said. "Shit."

* * *

"Now look," Xander said, "we're not doing this unless you're completely comfortable with it."

"It's okay," said Allison. "I could do this before I got strong."

"Really?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, well, it took a while, but I could climb a rope."

"And now?"

Allison smiled. "Wanna time me?"

She climbed down the rope to the first floor.

"Hey do me a favor," Xander said. "Jump as high up the rope as you can before climbing."

Allison shrugged. "Can't hurt. Ready?"

"When you are," Xander said. He didn't bother timing, and smiled at Allison's startled 'whoa!' when, on her jump, she managed to grasp the edge of the floor. Allison pulled herself up, grabbed the rope to haul herself up the railing and swung herself over the top.

"Wow," she said.

"Yeah," Xander said. "Well, you'll get better."

"Hey!" Dean shouted from the other side of the gap, as he blasted another zombie in the face. "You kids done fuckin' around? We got zombies here!"

Allison smiled at Xander and sprinted around to the other side. She helped Dawn over the edge of the barricade they had set up, then joined the brothers Winchester on the other side. Xander watched as Sam ran her through the plan one more time. Allison was nodding rhythmically and focused.

"If she gets hurt," Jerry said, drawing Xander's attention. Jerry was kneeling next to the chair they had dragged up for Xander. "If my baby gets hurt, I'm going to kill you."

Xander reached into the bag next to his chair and pulled out a pistol, which he offered to Jerry. Jerry's eyes widened in surprise, and he accepted the weapon

"The safety's on, so you'll have to disengage that," Xander said. "And remember to squeeze the trigger, don't pull it. And watch out for the recoil. It's a big gun, so it could hurt. You're gonna want to aim center mass." Xander pointed to his chest. "It's not as immediate as a head shot, but it's a lot easier unless you're right up next to me. And you don't want to be right up next to me. Although it actually might not be that bad. Shoot a cripple. Have fun with that.

"Now when you are killing me for getting your daughter injured while saving our lives, I want you to remember the look that is on my face. Imprint it into your memory, and take joy in it. Because when Dawn finds out that you've killed me, she's going to feed you to the zombies, and when they're biting into your flesh, you can remember that and think, 'Yes, this was all worth it because that bastard is dead.'"

Jerry stood beside Xander, his face red with anger and his knuckles white from gripping the gun.

"I get that you're worried and I'm sorry, but I know a lot more about this than you do, and I don't have the time or energy to coddle." He snatched the gun back from Jerry roughly. "And don't make threats unless you're prepared to back them up."

Xander dumped the gun back into his bag as Dawn, Luis and Erica arrived from the other side. Dawn noticed Jerry's neck, and the awkward silence.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

Xander nodded. "You're on the rifle, right?"

Dawn nodded. "Yup."

"Got it loaded?"

"Yeah."

"Planned your sight lines?" he asked.

"Yes, I have."

"Checked that your –"

"Xander?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Fair enough."

Dawn set up her rifle, then signaled over to Dean that everything was ready. The brothers took a couple of minutes to kill or disable all the zombies in the hall, Dean hopped into Xander's cart and unblocked the hallway. If the zombies couldn't get through quickly enough, they had thought, they might not follow Allison, and instead try to climb the barricade.

The plan was to allow enough in so the flow would, eventually, slow to a trickle, then kill them off and re-barricade the entrance. They didn't know how long it would last, but it was the best they had.

Dean and Sam arrived on the other side of the gap.

"Any time, now," Dean said. "Aaaaany time."

A moment later, the first zombie appeared. Followed by a second, and, too quickly, a third and fourth. Allison lashed out and sliced the head off the first zombie. A geyser of blood shot from its neck stump, and the body flopped to the floor. That was, apparently, enough to catch the others' attention, and they started ambling after her in earnest, and behind those initial few were dozens upon dozens more.

"Allison!" Xander yelled across the gap. "Back up!"

Allison nodded and backed up to the edge of the floor, where the railing had been knocked down. She reached out and decapitated another zombie, then turned and jumped down onto the first floor, and backed a few feet away from the ledge.

Everyone held their breath.

The first zombie fell, cracking its head open on the concrete floor. The second followed suit nicely, as did the third and fourth.

"That's good," Xander called down to Allison. "Come on back up."

"Oh, God," said Erica, as Allison hauled herself over the railing.

"What?" asked Xander. He looked where Erica was pointing and nearly lost his dinner. Crawling along the floor on the other side of the gap was a baby, no more than a few months old, skin falling off its face and the dark ooze dripping from a gash above its eye.

"Oh my God," said Dawn, paling as she took in the sight. "Oh, we… that can't… I…"

Sam stepped up next to her. "Here," he said, taking the rifle from her. "I'll do it."

She smiled weakly at him and nodded.

Everybody turned their heads and plugged their ears as best they could. A moment later the rifle barked.

"It's done?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah," said Sam. "But the sight's not any better. Worse, maybe. With the um. Splatter." There was a thud.

"Oh God, what was that?" Erica asked.

"The baby," Sam said. "It fell. Over the edge."

"Fell?" Xander asked, turning his head back. "How?"

Sam pointed at the trail of blood that led over the edge of the floor, the trail that started where the baby had been. "There was another zombie… right behind it. It kind of… kicked."

Luis clapped his hand to his mouth and started toward the bathroom.

"No, stop. Allison, grab him!" Dean yelled.

Allison reached out and grasped Luis by the arm. He rushed to the railing and vomited over the side, splashing a few zombies in the remnants of that night's MRE. When he was done spitting out the vileness, he turned to Dean. "What the fuck, man?"

Dean shook his head. "Can't risk it. They followed Allison over the edge. We don't know why. It's possible they were heading for us over here, our scent or something. If someone goes off in a different direction, they could draw the zombies away, and they might start working on that barricade… which is fragile enough as it is."

"So, what?" Erica asked, massaging Luis's arm where Allison had gripped it. A bruise was already starting to form. "We just stay here?"

"For now, yeah," Dean said. "Until we think we can re-block that hallway."

"Which could be hours," Jerry said.

Sam nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, everyone," Xander said, sliding out of his chair and onto the floor. "Get comfortable. I guess we could be here a while."

Dawn sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Erica did the same with Luis, and Allison with Jerry.

The Winchesters glanced at each other, and Xander broke up laughing.

* * *

Dawn woke to the sound of glass shattering. She sat up slowly and looked across to their zombie corral, but the flow of zombies had all but stopped. She stood slowly, walked over to the railing and looked down at the first floor. The zombies were, for the most part, wandering aimlessly.

"Over there."

Dawn jumped and looked behind her. Allison was standing there, pointing to an entryway on the right. "They've broken through there," Allison said.

Dawn looked, and sure enough there were more zombies flooding into the mall.

"I think we can close up over there, though," said Dawn. "They've slowed down enough."

Allison joined Dawn at the railing and looked at the zombies. "This isn't going to end well, is it?"

Dawn shrugged. "Can't really tell. Truth is, we probably can't hold out here more than another couple of days, maybe three. When Xander wakes up, he's going to say we need to build a blockade that blocks off the stairs to the roof and as much of the food court as we can."

"Why the food court?"

"Because more than beds, more than clean clothes, more than electricity, people stay calm and relaxed and think better if they have access to food."

"Really?" Allison asked.

Dawn nodded.

"How do you know stuff like that?"

Dawn shrugged. "This group that Xander and my sister work for… well, run, kind of. They're all over the world, and Xander spent about two years in Africa. I read a lot of his reports, and the best tool he ever had was food and water. People can handle a lot of hardship if they've got a full belly."

"Some people would argue that it's not much of a hardship if you've got a full stomach," Xander said from behind them. Allison and Dawn turned. "But then, they weren't surrounded by thousands of zombies."

"When did you wake up?" Dawn asked.

"Me and Buffy running the council. Which isn't true, by the way. Giles, Robin and Willow are much more involved in the day to day running of the council. Buffy and I are more like… situational consultants."

"You just believe that, sweetie," Dawn said, smiling.

"What's the sitch?"

"They're breaking in downstairs."

Xander nodded. "I figured that wouldn't be too far behind. Allison, would you wake the brothers and get them to help you block up the hall over there. Make it secure, but try to keep some of the larger pieces out."

"Why?" she asked.

"We're going to need another blockade," Xander said. "Stairs to the roof, and as much of the food court as we can manage."

Dawn nudged Allison with her elbow. "See?"

"Do you guys hear that?" Allison asked. She looked up at the sky.

Dawn and Xander looked at each other. "Um. Hear what?"

"It's like a… whistling sound like something –"

Something black and vaguely human shaped fell through the skylight. It whizzed past them and slammed into the mall floor, pulverizing a few zombies and exploding on impact like a too-full water balloon, spraying blood and bone shards everywhere. The sound woke everyone else up.

"Falling," Allison finished, her face much paler than it had been moments before. "Real fast."

Xander hopped over to the railing and glanced over the side. He looked at what was left of the clothes the falling man had been wearing. He dug deep in his mind and called on every ounce of experience with the weird, wacky and just plain messed up.

"What," he said, "the fuck?"

* * *

End Chapter 14


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer, etc., in the first chapter

* * *

"Oh. Yeah," Dean said. "I can just tell. That's something I'm never going to be able to unsee."

He shook his head and looked at Jerry. "How did you get reeled into this? Get it? Reeled?"

Jerry shook his head. After re-blocking the open hallway, he and Dean had come to solve the mystery of the falling man, and the others had gone to build Xander's latest idea to keep them all alive.

Jerry was currently pulling up what was left of their drop-in visitor, or at least of his clothes. Bits of the man – they assumed it was a man – were still leaking out of what looked to be a wetsuit.

"I fish a lot," Jerry said, doing his best not to look at what he'd caught. A few zombies reached up and grabbed at a bit of skin that was hanging from the wetsuit, and Jerry's lunch caught in his throat.

"That was pretty quick," Dean muttered.

"What was?" asked Jerry, turning for a moment to catch his breath.

"When they jumped. They were… quicker than they should have been. I'm sure it's nothing. You want me to finish this?" Dean asked.

Jerry shook his head, took a deep breath and started pulling the wetsuit back in again. "Have to do my part. Everyone else is contributing, I just sit here and do nothing. This is a way I can help."

"Jerry, you do plenty," said Dean.

"I haven't done anything," Jerry said. "Not since…."

"Jason," Dean finished.

Jerry nodded.

"That was a lot," said Dean. "If he was still here, we'd all be a lot more fucked up than we are. And we're pretty fucked up."

"You think?" Jerry asked.

"You're fishing a dead guy's swimsuit out of a mass of zombies to find out why he fell through a skylight, little… bits of him still hanging on and pouring out, and you didn't vomit," Dean pointed out.

"I almost did."

"Too bad we're not playing horseshoes, then."

Jerry pulled the wetsuit over the edge of the railing and lay it down on a tarp they had put down. Dean leaned over and pulled the hook out of the suit, then – with plastic gloves – held the wetsuit up.

"Yeah," he said, pointing to the ripped material and large number of holes in the fabric. "This poor bastard got shot. Close range, with a shotgun."

"Could it have been a zombie?" Jerry asked.

Dean shook his head. "Doubt it. I don't think they'd be jumping bits of his flesh if he was one of them. They don't seem too interested in cannibalism. Of other zombies, anyway."

"Hey," Erica said, coming up to them. She handed each of them a bottle of water.

"Hey yourself," said Dean, nodding his thanks for the water. "What's up?"

"We've got a problem," she told them.

"What kind of a problem?" Jerry asked.

"There's not enough material to build another blockade," Erica said. "Not even close."

Dean sighed and opened the water. "Meaning when they get onto this floor, we're all fucked."

"How long does Xander think the walls we built will hold up?" Jerry asked.

Erica shrugged. "Day. Maybe less. It depends on how spread out the zombies get, how much pressure they put on each wall."

She pointed down to the first floor, where the zombies had gathered around a staircase and were pounding – weakly, but constantly – on the wall that had been erected around it. "The more they're spread out, the less pressure on each wall."

Dean nodded. "So how do we spread them out?"

Erica shrugged. "We spread us out."

* * *

"It looks like the guy was shot with a shotgun," Dean said. "Close range, by the spread of the shot. Best guess is he was then pushed out of an airplane. Hence the falling and the splat."

"You're sure?" Xander asked.

"Hell no, we're not sure," said Dean. "For all I know his wet suit could have been eaten by a bear, and then he jumped through a magical portal and ended up 7 miles in the sky right above us, but I'm looking for horses, not zebras. He was probably part of some special ops team, got bit, hid it, and his team turned on him and dumped him."

Xander nodded. "Okay. We –"

"Tell him the other thing," Jerry said.

"What other thing?" asked Dawn.

"Nothing," Dean said to Xander. He turned to Jerry. "It's nothing."

"Dean," said Sam.

Dean rolled his eyes. "When Jerry fished the wetsuit up, there were… some bits hanging down from it, and the zombies jumped at it."

"Okay," said Xander. "And?"

Dean sighed. "And I thought they looked a little fast."

"Fast?" Xander asked.

Dean nodded. "Like, faster than they have been. Like a sudden burst that only lasted for a moment or two when the… when the uh, food was near them."

"Well," said Luis. "Shit."

"I don't know that, though," Dean said, "I mean, I might just have been seeing things."

"Right, well," said Xander. "I guess it's about time for me to explain my plan. I think we all need to split up to different sections of the mall. I'm guessing that the zombies come after us by smelling us, and if we're all in one place, they'll all congregate in one place, too. If we spread out, that might spread them out, too, and lessen the pressure on the walls we put up."

"Sam and Luis," Xander said. He pointed to a map of the mall. "Down by Sears and farthest from the roof stairs. You two are our fastest runners. If they break through anywhere else, you'll easily be able to get back here."

Sam and Luis both nodded.

"Dean, Jerry, you guys are down at the other end. It's closer, slightly, and there are fewer zombies there at the moment. That's probably the least likely to go at the moment, but who knows when the other doors are going to fail? Dawn, you're with Allison here by the roof stairs, and I'm with Erica over near the food court."

"Hey, whoa," said Dean.

"Yeah, that doesn't work for me," said Dawn. "At all."

"What?" Xander asked. "Why not?"

"Well," said Dawn, "how about we start with your team is by far the weakest – sorry, Erica – and go from there?'"

"That's ridiculous," Xander said.

"No, it really isn't," Sam said. "Xander, you may know how to fight, but you're all but incapacitated. You need someone who can help you more than Erica, and she needs someone who can help her more than you."

"He's right," Erica said. "I can hold of my share, but that's it. Maybe not even that. Besides, I don't wanna be takin' care of your ass for however long we're here."

"Definitely," Dawn said. "You need to be right by the roof stairs, because it's going to take you the longest to get up there, too. You need someone who can hold off a wave of while you climb."

"Guys, you're overreacting, this is just – "

"You trying to protect everyone else while ignoring yourself," said Allison. "Which is stupid. Most of us would be dead now if you weren't here, and I don't imagine our chances would get much better if you died now."

Xander sighed and looked up at the map. "Okay." He pointed at Sears. "Sam and Erica. Other end, Dean and Luis. In the middle, Dawn and Allison, and me and Jerry by the stairs. Better?"

Everybody nodded.

"Okay," Xander said. "Let's move on to weapons."

As Xander and the brothers started dividing weapons into what was useful for which groups, Dawn leaned over to Allison. "You'll switch with your dad?" she asked quietly.

Allison nodded.

* * *

"Dawn, this is Xander, come back."

Xander was met with silence from his radio. He looked at Allison, who shook her head.

"Dawn, come on," he said.

"You're going to have to do it," Allison said.

Xander sighed and raised the radio to his mouth again. He pressed the send key. "Princess Power, this is Nighthawk, come back."

Allison snorted a little.

"Nighthawk, this is Princess Power," came Dawn's gleeful reply. "What's up?"

"I want you to know that this is totally and utterly lame," Xander said. "Over."

"What's lame, Nighthawk?"

"Well, other than your codename, you shouldn't have had Allison switch areas with Jerry," Xander said.

The radio was silent for a minute. "My codename is totally not lame."

"That's really not the part you should be focusing on."

"Nighthawk, I can handle myself just fine," Dawn said. "And Jerry here is regaling me with fantastically embarrassing stories about his lovely young daughter."

"What?" Allison said.

"Stories which you, my dear Nighthawk, will be privy to if you don't whine too much."

"Wow that's really tempting," Xander said to Allison. Allison looked betrayed, and Xander grinned and spoke into the radio. "Princess Power, you know I have many stories of my own with which to regale young Allison here. If a switch is not made soon, I may be forced to discuss the appropriate uses of various school supplies."

Xander was met with silence, which continued longer than it should have. "Princess Power?" he said after a minute. "Dawn?"

The radio crackled to life, and he heard someone clear their throat. "Uh, Nighthawk, this is Sa – , I mean, this is Iceman."

Xander shook his head. "Nighthawk here."

"I've been asked by Princess Power to inform you that she is no longer speaking to you, but that if you think embarrassing her about innocent mistakes of her youth is going to make her value your safety any less, you're… hold on I wrote this down." Xander heard Sam shuffling with a piece of paper. "Then you are 'more delusional than Drusilla and about as stupid as Harmony, who totally won that slap fight, you stupid tazering clunt.'"

Xander heard Allison snort in a vain attempt to hold in her laughter. He licked his lips, sighed, and depressed the send button. "Uh, Iceman, this is Nighthawk. A point of clarification, please."

"Go ahead, Nighthawk," Sam said.

"What the hell is a 'clunt?'"

"Uh… wait one, Nighthawk, requesting further clarification." Xander waited for almost a minute before Sam came back on the channel. "Uh, Nighthawk," Sam said. "The term has two definitions. The first is an extremely and possibly purposefully ignorant or stupid person."

Xander shook his head. "Oh, God. I'm gonna regret this." He pressed the send button. "And the second?"

"It uh," Sam said. "It is a sloppy vagina."

Allison snorted, and her face was straining red.

"Not a word," Xander said. "Not one fucking word."

* * *

"So what does it mean?" Allison asked.

Xander shook his head to rouse him out of the nap he hadn't realized he was taking. He glanced up at the skylight. It was night, and the sky was dark, with clouds covering the stars.

"What does what mean?" Xander asked, rubbing the sleep from his eye. He turned and found her looking up from her book.

"That the zombies are faster."

Xander sighed. "Well, two things to focus on, really. The first is that Dean wasn't sure. It could have been his eyes playing tricks on him. We haven't seen any evidence that the zombies are getting faster, or that they speed up near food."

"What's the second thing?"

"Dean's pretty sharp. Also, we haven't really been very close to the zombies the way the wetsuit probably was, so that we haven't seen it doesn't mean much. So even though we haven't got confirmation, we're going to have to be a lot more careful than, for instance, I was in the sewer, when we're fighting them hand-to-undead-hand."

"So it makes them more dangerous?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah. And us more vulnerable. I'm really hoping that if they're faster at all, it's just when they're really close to food. Though with the way our luck has been running…"

"Yeah," Allison said. "Are we going to die here?"

Xander thought about what to say for a moment. Hope was a wonderful thing, but Allison was a Slayer, and a responsible young woman. She deserved, he thought, the truth. To an extent.

"It's a possibility," he said. "And the truth is, every day that passes makes it less likely that we're going to get out of here. But I guarantee you this, we're not going down without a fight. And I will be damned if any of us gets turned into one of those undead monsters."

Above them, thunder rolled across the sky, and lightning lit up the night for the briefest of moments, eliciting a gasp from Allison. Soon, a gentle rain was falling through the skylight creating a calming background of white noise.

"Try to get some sleep," Xander said. "I'm willing to bet tomorrow's going to be a busy day."

Allison nodded and lay down on a cushion.

Xander lay silently as well, his eye closed, trying to get back to sleep but unable. The rain was getting heavier, the wind colder. After about half an hour, he heard a soft sobbing coming from Allison's direction, one that only grew louder with every crash of thunder. As quietly as he could, Xander stood, grasped his clutches, and hobbled off into the distance. When he arrived at Dawn's area, he tapped Jerry on the shoulder.

"Xander?" Jerry asked, sitting up from his slumber. "What are you doing here?"

Xander pointed back the way he had come. "She needs you."

Jerry was up in an instant and hurrying down the hallway to comfort his daughter.

Xander lowered himself gently down into Jerry's sleeping area and fell asleep. A short time later, as thunder rolled over their heads, Xander was awoke as Dawn, shivering and cold, curled herself into a ball and huddled up next to him. He shared his blanket with her, and went back to sleep.

* * *

End Chapter 15


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Eleven**

It started slowly, or at least more slowly than Xander would have expected. He was running Allison through some exercises with basic hand-to-hand weapons, which she was taking to like a duck to water. He was pretty sure that with another couple days of practice her swordplay would outmatch his own. As he finished giving her a couple more tips on what parts of her body she needed to pay attention to when using a sword, Sam called in. It was just after two pm.

"They're getting rowdy," Sam said. "Or at least rowdier."

"In what sense?" Xander asked.

"They're attacking the walls more. Harder. Faster. In the past ten minutes, I've seen a couple of them slam their bodies into the walls, and they're starting to make some real progress."

Xander sighed, and slashed his hand across his throat telling Allison to stop her exercises. "Okay," Xander said into the radio. "Have you dropped your marbles and spikes?"

"Not yet," Sam said.

"Do it," said Xander. "No sense in waiting until the last minute. After that, put up your tripwire and make sure all your spare clips are loaded. Remember, we want to use the stairs as a bottleneck, clogging them up as much as we can, making it hard for the rest to get up here."

"Right," said Sam. "I'll call back if there's any change."

Xander switched to Dean's frequency and called for him.

"One second," Dean replied.

Xander waited a couple of minutes before Dean called again.

"Hey," Dean said. "What's up?"

"Any change in activity down there?"

"Uh, yeah, you might say that. Listen up."

Xander listened for a moment and heard loud thudding, as though bodies were being thrown up against a wall. "Hear that?" Dean's voice sounded distant, as though he were holding the radio away from his voice.

"They're getting more violent," Dean said, his voice clear again. "This isn't going to last long. We dropped the spikes and the marbles, and Luis is setting up the trip wire as we speak."

"Okay," Xander said. "Check your ammo and keep me posted."

"Ten-four," said Dean.

"Do me a favor," Xander said to Allison, clipping the radio to his belt.

"Run and tell Dawn and my dad to drop their marbles and spikes, and set up their trip wire?"

"Clever girl," Xander said, smiling at her. She jogged off down the hall, and Xander went to work on their staircase.

* * *

The marbles made the zombies fall, and splashed a few brains on the edges of stairs. Apparently, the fact that they still moved around didn't mean they stopped decomposing. As if that weren't already evident by the stench. The spikes didn't have much effect at all, except to have walking, leaking zombies climbing up the stairs and over the bodies of their fallen predecessors.

"This is disgusting," Sam said. He lined up another zombie in his sights and splattered its brains over the crowd of undead behind it. "Really, really disgusting."

"You're telling me," Erica said. She was reloading another clip of ammunition for Sam, and had already rushed to the railing more than once to empty her stomach of that morning's MRE.

Sam blasted a couple more heads into oblivion and ejected the clip from his gun. "Ready with another?" he asked.

"One second." Erica loaded one last bullet into the clip and threw it to Sam, catching the empty one he tossed back to her.

"Sam, Erica, this is Xander, come back."

"You mind?" Sam asked.

Erica picked up the radio and responded. "Hey Xander. What's up?"

"How are you guys on ammo?"

Erica glanced into the box she was pulling bullets from.

"About a hundred rounds left," she said.

"Okay. Have Sam finish up his clip and then pack it in and switch to swords."

"How is it on the other side?" Erica asked.

"Dean and Luis switched to melee weapons about ten minutes ago – remember to go for the head, and keep your mouth covered. No splash back."

"Right," Erica said. "Anything else?"

"If all goes well, someone should be down in a few minutes with some surprises for you," Xander said.

"What are the chances of all going well?"

"In this case? Pretty good. Don't forget, if you guys start to get tired or overwhelmed, just head on back towards the stairs."

"Will do. Thanks."

Erica packed up the rest of the ammunition and pulled out the sword and the fire axe and, when Sam was finished dispatching some more zombies, held them out to him. "Which one for you?" she asked.

"We're done with guns?"

"For now," she said. "Xander said we need to switch, I guess saving ammo for later."

Sam nodded and took the sword.

"So how do we do this?" Erica said. "I mean… what do I do?"

"You ever used an axe before?" Sam asked.

Erica shook her head.

"Okay, well, for what we're doing it's pretty simple. A lot of the zombies are going to trip over the wire here. When they do, you swing the axe into its head or neck. Either one will kill it."

"Just swing it?"

"Like a baseball bat, only downwards."

"Okay, I think I can do that."

"Good," Sam said. "And it's okay to be scared. We're all scared. If it gets to be too much, just back up for a minute, catch your breath and then decide if you can keep going. If you can't, that's okay, just make sure you tell me before you go, okay?"

Erica nodded. "Okay."

Sam smiled back at her, then thrust out with his sword and speared a zombie through the face. Its skull caught on the blade, so he swung it over the side of the stairs and let it fall on a few of other zombies. The next zombie seemed to lunge at them, startling them enough that they jumped a few feet backwards.

"That was… not fun," Erica said.

Sam shook his head. "Well, it needs to be killed. You want to try it?" Sam asked.

Erica nodded, slipped a surgical mask over her face and stepped within a couple of feet of the zombie, which was trying to rise to its feet. She raised the axe over her head and slammed it down, splitting the head in two and leaking brains, blood and the black gooey substance out all over the floor, splashing her pants and shoes in bits of skull and hair.

"Like that?" she asked

Sam flicked his foot and sent a small piece of gray matter flying. "Yeah," he said, looking at the corpse. "That should do. What do you say we try to get these guys coming up the stairs, instead of once they fall? Less mess to slip on."

Erica nodded. "Let's do it."

* * *

"This is as much as I could get," Jerry said, holding up a few containers. "Think it'll work?"

"I hope so," Xander said. "There's not a whole lot else we can do. The guys are getting tired, and they're going to have to fall back soon. Ready to do some pouring?"

"Let's do it," Jerry said. They went to work. Fifteen minutes later, Jerry grabbed a box of their contraptions and a lighter and headed for Sam and Erica.

"Ready for some help?" Jerry asked.

"Take anything you can give," Sam said. Both he and Erica were breathing hard, and the scene before them was pure carnage. Heads and body parts were strewn everywhere, they were both covered head to toe in zombie juices.

"Well, keep swinging," Jerry said. "I'll work my magic."

He pulled a glass bottle from the box and got it ready.

"Are we sure this is smart?" Sam asked, decapitating another zombie and kicking its body back down the stairs, hoping to delay its undead brothers and sisters a few more seconds.

"No, but it's about all we've got left," Jerry said. "And better to do it while they're down there."

"Where'd you get the gas?" Sam asked.

"Siphoned from the generator. We're not going to be using that again anytime soon." Jerry held up the Molotov cocktail. "You want first toss?"

"No, go ahead," Sam said.

Jerry offered it to Erica but she, too, declined.

"Okay," Jerry said, lighting the gas-soaked rag. "Here goes nothin'."

He tossed the makeshift firebomb into the crowd below and watched as the bottle cracked and liquid fire spread across a few zombies. They seemed entirely unaffected by it, except that they were now on fire.

"Huh," Sam said. "That's… a little disappointing."

"Another, you think?" Jerry asked, wincing a little bit as Erica slammed her axe into the head of another zombie, flinging it over the side of the stairs.

Sam shrugged. "Can't hurt."

Jerry lit another rag and tossed another Molotov cocktail into the crowd. It, too, smashed over the head of a zombie and spread fire to a few zombies around it, but failed to have any other impact.

"I was kind of hoping they'd go a little nuts," Jerry said.

"At least it's spreading," said Erica.

"What?" Jerry and Sam asked.

Erica pointed, allowing Sam to dispatch the next zombie up the stairs. Jerry looked over the railing, and sure enough, the fire was slowly spreading from one zombie to the next. Jerry continued to watch the undead burn as Sam and Erica continued dispatching the zombies that were making their way up the ever bloodier, ever more crowded stairs.

After a couple of minutes the fire stopped spreading, but it had caught on almost fifty zombies. The first few, the ones that had been doused in gasoline, continued to burn bright.

Jerry looked at his box. "Okay," he said. "I'm gonna go toss these off some other ledges. Remember to pull back before you get too tired."

"Will do," Erica said.

Jerry nodded at them and headed off.

* * *

Zombies were burning to death, a stench so horrible that everyone had emptied their stomachs, and were all still fighting not to gag. Stairs were full to bursting with zombie corpses and severed heads, and the hallways of the mall were littered with the same. Dawn, Sam, Jerry, Dean, Erica and Luis were all but worn out, a fate Allison was saved from by her Slayer stamina, and Xander was saved from by his immobility. The whole group, excluding Xander, was covered head to toe in zombie guts.

It wasn't enough.

"Pull back!" Xander yelled. He was standing behind all seven of them, spread out in an arc. They had been holding out all day, and were now doing their best to stave off a flood of zombies from all directions. The zombies were slow, the zombies were stupid, the zombies were, once you knew what to do, relatively easy to kill, but there were thousands of them, and they never stopped coming.

"Allison!" Dawn yelled. "Get Xander on the roof!"

"Not yet," Xander called. "I'm still fine. Just pull back, make sure you can support each other."

The seven of them slowly backed up, shrinking the arc. Swords, axes, and machetes swung in controlled arcs, each swing a hit, each hit a kill. Every few zombies, there was a gap, giving each member of the group a few vital seconds of rest before the next wave. The arc continued shrinking as the bodies continued piling up.

"Okay!" Xander yelled after a few more minutes. Everybody was slowing down. "That's it, let's get out of here!"

He tapped Erica on the shoulder, and she waited for the next lull, then backed out of the group and headed for the stairs and up to the roof.

"Allison, we're next, okay?"

"Got it," she said.

At the next break, Allison slid her sword into the scabbard she'd lashed to her hip, turned and tossed Xander over her shoulder.

"No!" Xander yelled. She felt him lunge back towards the line. The gap where Allison had stood was now filled by a zombie, one she hadn't seen, one she hadn't dispatched, one that had lunged at –

"Daddy!" Allison yelled. She dropped Xander on the ground, hard, and whipped the sword out of her scabbard, slicing the top of zombie's head off. She yanked her dad off the front line and, re-energized, slashed her sword in a blinding fury, killing almost a dozen zombies in three swift strokes.

When she pulled back again to check on her dad, the arc closed in, and quickly. The others shared a quick glance to agree that they would hold as long as was necessary.

Allison knelt beside her father, who had fallen to the floor.

"Baby," he said, stroking her cheek with his left hand. She grasped his hand in hers and tears ran down her cheek. Jerry smiled at his daughter, swallowed hard, and turned so she could see his opposite shoulder. The shirt was ripped and the shoulder bloody from a nasty looking bite. A couple of the zombie's teeth were still quivering in his flesh.

"No," she sobbed.

"I'm sorry sweetheart," Jerry said. "I tried to take care of you."

"You did, Daddy," she said. "You were always there for me. Always."

Jerry smiled. "You're the best thing I ever did. You're what I'm most proud of in my life."

Allison was sobbing, now, her tears flowing freely.

"Go on, baby," Jerry said. "Get out of here, and live."

Allison nodded, and hugged her father tightly to her. She stood up, and smiled through her tears at her father, and turned to Xander.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

Xander nodded. "Whenever you are."

She picked him up again, and looked once again at her father. "I love you, Daddy," she said.

"I love you, too, Allison," he said. "Always remember that."

Allison bit her lip, then turned and headed upstairs. She didn't catch the look that passed between Xander and Dean.

* * *

Jerry had retaken his place on the line. His shoulder was injured, but he could still fight. Luis was the next to head upstairs, after taking a moment to shake Jerry's hand. After a short argument, Dawn was next to go, leaving only the Winchesters and Jerry.

"Sammy, the gas," Dean said. Sam pulled back into the stairwell. Dean and Jerry guarded the door, every swing impacting with zombies. Quickly, Sam poured what gasoline they had left into a large bowl and flung it out over the crowd of zombies. There was enough to fill three bowls. He shoved something in Dean's jacket pocket, placed a shotgun right at the stairwell door, clapped Jerry on the shoulder, and ran up the stairs.

At his next opportunity, Dean dropped his axe and picked up the shotgun. With a few quick rounds – the only flechette rounds they had, he dispatched a dozen zombies. A few more rounds gave them a few moments to talk.

"What do you have for me?" Jerry asked.

"A lighter," Dean said, pulling a solid black Zippo from his jeans pocket. "Sammy just doused about fifty of them in gas, we're hoping this will slow them down and maybe, if we're lucky, block this door enough to keep them out. If not, well, at least it's some more that are dead."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah," Dean said. He pulled out the gun Sam had shoved in his jacket and handed it to Jerry. "One bullet."

Jerry looked him in the eyes, took a deep breath and nodded.

"You're a good man, Jerry. You raised her well."

"If it comes to it," Jerry said, "she doesn't become one of these things."

"I won't let that happen," said Dean. He took Jerry's hand and shook it. "It's been an honor."

Jerry nodded to the door. "Make sure you secure it."

Dean nodded, backed into the stairwell and shut the door. He slid a long piece of wood through the handle, bracing it against the door frame as best he could, then shoved the last metal bench in the mall against the door to brace it. Just as he was done moving the bench, he heard a loud whoosh from the other side of the door, and a blast of heat as the fire spread.

The heat was followed by a single bang, and the sound of a body slumped against the wall.

Dean mumbled a small prayer, crossed himself, and headed up to the roof.

* * *

End Chapter 16


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Twelve**

Nobody had gotten much sleep. It was cold on the roof, and despite the flood of zombies currently inhabiting the mall, there were still thousands of them surrounding the mall, taking away even the thought of escaping by foot. The constant moaning, bad enough when it was dulled by the concrete walls of the mall, was torturous now that they had no escape from it.

They had stored the rest of the MRE's on the roof, enough for maybe three or four days, and they enough water for maybe twice that. A quick check of their ammunition showed about two hundred fifty 9mm rounds, about fifty for the shotgun, and half that for Dawn's rifle.

Xander sat at the edge of the roof, looking out at the city, wondering who if there was anybody else alive out there. When he was talking to the others, Xander was sure to look confident, but he knew that if this continued much longer, they were all dead. It had already been a week since Riley had sent the chopper full of supplies for them, almost ten days since Buffy had fought her way through the horde of zombies to freedom. If nothing else, Xander thought, at least she was free of this.

"Hey," Dawn said, sitting down next to him and shielding her eyes from the morning sun.

"Hey yourself," he said, smiling at her.

"Whatcha thinking about?" she asked.

"Looking around to see if there's any possible way we might be able to run out of here."

"And?"

Xander shook his head. "Not so much."

Dawn sighed and sat with him silently. After a moment, she pointed off into the distance. "You see that tower over there? Looks like a church steeple?"

Xander nodded. "Sure."

"That's the top of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. And over there, the tall, ugly beige thing that looks kind of like upside-down Lego feet? That's Crosley Tower, which I think is… chemistry or something."

"You think?"

"I try to stay away from science," Dawn said. "Anyway, that's about all of the tour I can give you from here, since we never actually got to the University."

"You like it there?"

"I really do," Dawn said. "I'm kind of surprised by how much I do. It's like, okay, I'm in Cincinnati. Big whoop, you know? Not far from Cleveland, and not much of a better reputation, and I could have been, well…"

"Anywhere," Xander said. "Giles still occasionally gets letters from colleagues asking after you, wondering where you're going to do your graduate studies, wondering if you'd consider a transfer. You're a hot commodity, Ms. Summers."

Dawn blushed a little and swept some hair behind her ear. "Anyway. I've met some really awesome people here. Made a lot of good friends. Had some great times."

Xander sat there, nodding.

"How many of them do you think are dead?" she asked, her voice devoid of emotion.

Xander looked up at her, and saw that she was doing her best not to cry. He reached out and squeezed her hand.

"It's not fair," Dawn said. "It's not fair at all. With us, with all of us, it's like if we die doing this, well it sucks, and it's sad, and it's horrible but this is what we do. We know the risks, and we do our best to limit them, but we know. We know that eventually, this life will kill us. We're ready for it, though, because it's what has to be done.

"But these people… Jerry, Gloria… even… Jason. All my friends at school, all these random, nameless people down there who got bit, got infected, whatever, became zombies… they didn't know. They didn't know to be scared, or to be ready, they didn't know what was out there."

Dawn looked at Xander, her eyes moist with unshed tears. "I hope Buffy's okay."

Xander pulled Dawn close to him and wrapped her up in his arms, and held her there for about ten minutes, until someone behind them coughed.

Xander looked up and saw Sam standing behind them. "Yeah?" Xander asked.

"Sorry to interrupt," Sam said.

Dawn smiled at him. "It's okay. What's up?"

"They're in the stairwell."

* * *

"This is our last bottleneck," Xander said, his arm resting on Dawn's shoulder for support. The rest of the group was standing in a semi-circle around them. "This is our last real chance to hold them all off, to give us some breathing room and hope for a rescue. It's our job to hold off until they can get here. And they will get here. We just have to be smart.

"So. Dawn, Dean, you're our best shots. It won't matter a whole lot at this range, but it's best not to take chances. You two are the frontline. Kill as many as you can before they come out the door. Try to plug up the hole with bodies. We've found out that they will climb over obstacles – including bodies – to get to their food, so it's possible we can plug the hole completely. Now that won't stop them. If they'll bash through a door, they'll bash through bodies as well. It will give us some more time, though.

"Allison, Sam. You guys are loading ammo. They should never have to wait for another clip."

"And us?" Luis asked, his arm around Erica's waist.

"Cargo duty. Sorry." Xander pointed to the roof at the opposite end of the mall. "Get as much of our food and water over there as possible. We want to be as far away from these things as possible."

"And you?" Dawn asked.

Xander smiled at her. "I get to spend my time working my way over to the other end of the roof. And then wait."

Dawn nodded.

"What?" Sam asked. He was looking directly at his brother, who couldn't stop grinning.

Dean shrugged. "Nothing. Just that a girl's a better shot than you, and so am I."

"So," Xander said, his brow furrowed, "you're saying you're… like a girl?"

Dean frowned. Sam punched him in the arm. "Better luck next time."

* * *

"It's starting to crack," Dean said. Luis, Erica and Xander had retreated to the opposite end of the roof with the food and most of the water.

"You guys should back up," Sam said.

"We're fine," Dawn said. She was shaking her hands and rolling her neck from side to side, trying to stay loose.

Sam glanced at Allison and sent her a quick wink. She smiled at him and went back to loading the ammunition into the spare clips. The sound of the zombies throwing themselves against the door was getting louder. Sam didn't know whether that was because the door was starting to come loose or because they were hitting it harder. In any event, it wouldn't be more than a minute or two before the door came crashing down.

Sam raised his binoculars to his eyes and saw Luis and Erica hard at work. They had – at Xander's suggestion, no doubt – tied a rope to the end of the grids that previously held the mall's skylights. Currently, they were using the sledge hammers to weaken the iron beams that held those gabled grids to the roof. Sam didn't know what they would be used for, but he was sure that it would, in some way, increase their survival chances.

The doorframe shook and creaked and bowed inwards. Dean and Dawn raised their guns. The door thumped, and thumped again, and then burst out of its frame and slammed to the ground, forcing the pair to hop back a few feet.

Sam smirked a little and considered a quick 'I told you so,' but then their guns were firing and there was no time. Their guns were firing round after round, not a shot wasted between them. Within a couple of minutes, Sam noticed that not only were they killing one zombie with every bullet, they were timing their shots, making certain that every body that fell plugged up the hole a little more.

It turned out, they had found, that Allison's dexterity and speed affected everything from her agility to her fingers, and that she could load about two and a half clips in the time he could do one, which was especially amazing because he had a lot more experience at it – which was to say, he had some.

But they worked out that her time was best spent loading bullets, while his was best spent ferrying the clips from her to Dean and Dawn and back. After a couple of minutes, they developed a good rhythm, but Sam did notice one worrying thing. He looked up into the darkening sky, then back at the ammo box at Allison's feet.

It was emptying far too quickly, and the bodies weren't piling up nearly fast enough. But they were starting to plug the hole.

Sam glanced up at the door. Zombies were crawling over the bodies in front of them, but the pile was getting higher. He wasn't sure how well the pile of bodies would hold up – they seemed to be moving pretty easily. But at the very least, it slowed them down enough so that Dawn and Dean weren't tiring out too quickly.

"Allison."

Sam and Allison looked up.

"Erica?" Allison asked.

"Xander needs you to lift some stuff, it's kind of urgent," Erica said. "Sent me to replace you."

Allison glanced at Sam, who looked at the pile of bodies and the box of ammo again. He nodded. "Things should slow down some more in a minute here, and we've got a good head start. Erica, you stick here and help me with this, and we should be all right."

Allison smiled at him, handed her clip to Erica and ran off toward Xander and Luis.

* * *

Xander pulled hard, and Luis winced, sucking in air through his teeth. "Sorry," Xander said. He wrapped the bandage around Luis's ankle, making sure it stayed tight. "This will give you the most support, though."

Luis nodded and leaned back, resting his palms on the rough surface of the roof and watching with interest as Allison jogged up to them.

"Hey," she said. "What's up?"

"One second," Xander said. He gave the bandage another tug and clipped it in place, then looked up at Allison. "Got a quick project for you."

"Lifting stuff, Erica said."

"That's the project," said Xander. He pointed over to the two iron, gabled, skylight grids. "Those are our last line of defense."

Allison glanced at the two structures. "We're fucked, aren't we?"

Xander nodded. "Little bit."

"What happened to you?" she asked Luis.

"Tripped over my own goddamn feet and sprained my ankle."

"That sucks."

Allison sighed. "Where do you want these things?"

Xander looked around. The roof was split into two levels, one above the hallways inside and the other, above the department stores, was a couple of feet higher. Which was where they were.

"At the edge there," Xander said, pointing to the lower section of roof. "That should give us the best cover."

"Cover?" Allison asked.

Xander shrugged. "It's just another little delaying tactic," he said.

"They can climb right over it!" she said.

"Sure, giving us easy access to their necks. Which is where the swords and axes come in."

"And sledgehammers," Luis added.

"Only if we lose something else," Xander said. "Sledge will tire you out a lot quicker than a sword or axe."

"So why don't we put these things farther forward?" Allison asked.

"No way to stop them," Xander said. "We put them farther forward, we run the risk of someone getting trapped in there when the zombies push. And they will push."

Allison nodded. Within a minute, she had manhandled them into position just where Xander told her.

"Awesome," Xander said, nodding approvingly. The grids covered the entire intersection between the roofs.

"How come they make them like that?" Luis asked.

"Like what?"

Luis held his hands up, meeting them at the finger tips in an upside-down V. "Like that," he said. "Wouldn't it be cheaper to make them flat?"

Xander shrugged. "Not by much. Compared to the price of just building the mall, that's a tiny expense. And gabling the skylights allows a lot more natural light to come in. Not just more, but it also comes in earlier and stays in later. Over the life of the mall, it'll help cut down on electricity a lot."

Luis looked up at him. "Do you just know everything?"

Xander laughed. "I used to work construction. Stuff like this just kind of –"

"Shh!" Allison said, cutting them off.

They both looked up at her. She pointed to where the others were still holding off the zombies.

"They've switched to the shotgun," she said.

Xander nodded. "Any time now."

"Should I go back?"

Xander shook his head. "Let's get the weapons ready. They'll be heading back this way any time now." He glanced at the horizon. The sun was maybe five minutes from setting.

"How are we going to see them to kill them?" Allison asked.

"Well we've got two flashlights," Xander said. "But I don't think we'll need them too much."

"Why?" she asked.

Xander looked at Luis, who smiled weakly. "The eyes," Luis said. "As if the moaning and the smell weren't enough, in about twenty minutes the bastards' eyes are gonna start glowing red. That'll give us our targets, sure enough."

The three of them laid out all the weapons they had, wiped them off, and generally felt useless as they heard their friends doing their best to hold back the wave of undead that was going to try to eat them all.

Almost twenty minutes later, the sun set and the red glow just beginning appearing in the eyes of the zombies, Xander's radio crackled to life. "We're coming home," Dawn's voice said. "Get ready for company."

* * *

End Chapter 17


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter.

* * *

It was going better than Xander expected. Dawn and Dean had done their jobs extremely well, and for better than an hour, they were treated to a slow trickle, maybe one or two zombies a minute. The stairwell had been well and truly clogged, and it took a long time before they started shifting under the weight of the approaching masses.

They had held out very well, in large part due to the ingenuity of the Winchester brothers. They had taken the time and energy, while retreating from the stairwell, to pick up the stairwell door and carry it with them to where Xander, Luis and Allison were waiting.

The skylight grids had indeed slowed the zombies down immensely, and the group had been able to easily behead every zombie that had tried to climb over them. They would have placed them up against the door to block that flow even more, but as Sam was quick to point out, they had nothing to brace the grids against.

Even when, after a while, the zombies had entirely cleared the door (largely by pounding the piled up bodies into pieces that could slide through onto the roof) the flood had not been unmanageable. It wasn't until around 10 o'clock, when the moon had risen bright and full over a crisp, clear night, that the zombies had really and truly started flooding the roof in numbers that were any real threat.

But come they had, and for about the past hour, every able person had been at the grid, cutting zombies down with very little in the way of a break. Allison was swinging the stairwell door and knocking zombies that were at the edge of the roof off of it. Luis and Xander, injured though they were, were able to contribute. That the group had the high ground meant Luis could attack them from his knees, which, while awkward, he adjusted to with practice, and was doing well. And when his knees needed a break, Xander was able to step in for a few minutes to give him that rest.

Things were looking if not up, Xander thought, then at least not down, either. Which of course is when things started to go down hill.

It started with Allison. The door she was wielding had taken too much abuse, and after knocking another few zombies off the roof, it cracked in half. The sudden change in weight, mid swing, caused Allison to stumble, enough that it looked for a moment like she would fall off the roof right along with the zombies.

Dean, who was the closest, dropped his axe and lunged at Allison, grabbing her by the back of the shirt and pulling her back to safety. This, in turn, left Luis's flank open, and he was forced to cover double the space. He lunged from one side to the other, sometimes doing nothing more than knocking a zombie backwards to give himself more time. And then, his hands slick with sweat, zombie goo and brains, Luis dropped his sword.

He fell quickly to his stomach to retrieve the weapon, and had his hand wrapped around it when a pale, sickly looking arm reached for him and scratched across his forearm, tearing the flesh and leaving pieces of fingernail embedded in his arm.

Luis screamed, and Dean turned around and pulled him back. He grabbed Luis's sword and plunged it into the zombie's skull. Xander called for everyone else to spread out a little more, then pulled Luis back from the line. He poured water over Luis's wounds and wrapped them up in a bandage.

"Let me back in there," Luis said. "I'm all right."

"Flex your fingers," Xander said.

Luis opened and closed his hand, balling it into a loose fist a couple of times and wincing with each repetition. Xander nodded and held out a flashlight. "Hold this tight," he said. Luis gripped the flashlight, and Xander took his own flashlight and smacked it against the barrel of Luis's. Luis yelled in pain and dropped the light.

Xander shook his head. "Sorry. You're in the back here with me. Help make sure everyone has water. Pay attention to Erica especially, she's been getting tired. If she needs a break, call me. I can spell her for a little while."

Luis nodded sullenly and picked up a couple bottles of water.

"Hey," Xander said. Luis turned back to look at him. "You did great, okay? You did everything you could. Be proud of that."

Luis nodded at him again, and headed down the line towards Erica.

* * *

All of them were tired. Xander could see that easily. The physical exertion was beyond what most of them had ever engaged in. Even Allison, with her Slayer stamina, was starting to drag a little. And unfortunately, that meant they were getting sloppy. Their arms burned with exhaustion, their attacks were getting slower and weaker.

Xander swung his axe, decapitating another zombie, then felt a tap on his shoulder. He backed up and Sam resumed his place, his face wet from dousing himself in water. Xander looked around and saw Luis approaching him again.

About every ten minutes for the last half hour, Luis had come back to test his grip again. It was getting better, that was for sure, but Xander, as of the last test, was still of the opinion that Luis would have been a greater liability than a help. Chances were that Luis would drop his weapon, and picking it up again would give him an even greater chance at becoming zombie food.

Xander was also pretty sure that all that was happening was Luis was adapting to the pain. He was no stronger, he could just take more pain. But it was getting to the point where the distinction might not matter.

Luis held out the flashlight. Xander held his own out and slammed it against Luis's. His grip held strong. He hit it twice more, and Luis's flashlight didn't budge. Xander nodded and handed him a sword. "Go back up Dawn and Erica." Luis smiled at him and hobbled off to join the girls.

After resting for a few more minutes, Xander tapped Dean on the shoulder and stepped into his place in line. With his injuries, Xander could only replace someone for about five minutes at a time, and could really go for about ten minutes out of every twenty. But those few minutes he could contribute seemed to do wonderful things for the people he replaced. A little rest went a long way.

When Dean had taken his rest, and Xander was pulling back behind the line, a piercing scream tore through the night sky.

* * *

Luis felt good.

Well, that was a lie. His arm hurt worse than anything he'd ever experienced, and he was more tired than he'd been in his whole life, and he was fighting zombies that wanted to eat him. But he was doing it next to a great woman who he really liked (and he was pretty sure that wasn't just the 'sex under extreme circumstances' talking), and they were doing it together. And while, yes, he was fighting for his life, he found that made him feel like he was actually *doing* something for once, not just being a cog in the machinery of society.

So, all things considered Luis felt pretty good. He was, after all, alive, and that was more than he could say for any of the poor bastards he was killing. Re-killing, he supposed. Every second he lived from this point out would be because he fought tooth and nail for his life, and as Xander had said, that was something to be proud of.

Luis glanced at Erica beside him, and saw her glance back at him. They shared a quick smile, and Luis swung his sword again. The pain of the impact shot through his arm, but he held on tight and finished the cut, and a zombie dropped in front of him.

The nice thing about zombies, he supposed, was that they were slow. Their speed allowed him to reset between each kill, maintain a strong grip on the weapon. If he could kill more than one at a time, that gave him a couple of seconds to adjust his footwork. His sprained ankle meant constantly adjusting the pressure on his foot. It was uncomfortable, but he made it work.

He swung again, and this time with more gusto. He put a little twist into his swing, and the head went flying. Luis smirked a little, cockily, reset his shoulders and cocked his arm back again when Erica screamed.

Luis turned, pulling his arm through his swing and decapitating another zombie. The head he'd sent flying, he saw, had hit Erica in the arm, startling her. She had dropped her weapon, and then dropped to her knees to reach down and retrieve it.

"Nooo!" Luis yelled. He dropped to his side and rolled toward Erica, her continued screams ringing in his ears. He rolled up behind where she'd been and looked for her. His fears were realized, and he saw that she'd been grabbed by a few zombies, each of which was pulling her in a different direction.

"Give me your hand!" Luis yelled, lunging for her. Erica reached up for his hand, and screamed again. Luis looked at her and saw two zombies had bitten into the flesh of her calves, and her blood was flowing into their mouths.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Help me!" he yelled, glancing up at Xander behind him. "Help me, we can get her back!"

"Luis," Xander said. "Stop."

"Come on you son of a bitch!" Luis yelled. He scrambled forward, trying to get closer to Erica. He looked in her eyes, and saw pleading in them, but it was not aimed at him. A moment later, there was a loud bark, and blood sprayed from her head onto his as her body fell to the rooftop, lifeless. He sat stunned for a moment, then scrambled backwards from the ledge.

"I'm sorry," Xander said, quietly.

"You asshole!" Luis yelled, his vision blurred by tears. He lunged at Xander, who easily sidestepped his wild attack. He turned to rush Xander again, when he was tackled to the ground from behind.

"Go," he heard Dawn's voice say from on top of him. He looked up and saw Xander nod, then limp toward the ledge.

"Look, I know this sucks right now," Dawn said, pulling herself off of him. "And it will for a long time. Watching people you care about die in this business is horrible. It doesn't go away. Any of us can tell you that, even Allison. Especially Allison, right now. But Erica was gone. She was. She was as good as dead, and what Xander did was speed it up, and make sure she wouldn't become one of those monsters."

She reached behind him and grabbed two bottles of water, and handed him one.

"Take a minute," she said. "Take a minute and compose yourself, and then get back on that line and start fighting, because we still need you, Luis. We still need you, because we cannot hold out much longer."

Dawn opened her water, drank half of it and poured the rest over her head. She hefted her axe and headed back to the line.

"Dawn," Luis said. She turned back to him. "I thought we were out of bullets."

Dawn smiled sadly. "No," she said, glancing around for a quick head count. "There's six left."

* * *

End Chapter 18


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimers, etc., in first chapter

* * *

 **Day Thirteen**

Xander's leg was burning from exertion, and the pain was almost unbearable. But he ground his teeth and set his foot and beheaded another zombie. Swing and cut. Swing and cut. It was monotonous, but he couldn't let his mind wander. He had to concentrate.

"Does anybody else hear that?" Allison called.

Xander blinked a few times and cocked his head.

"Not me," Dawn yelled from the opposite end of the roof.

"Nothing," confirmed Dean.

"It's like a… sheet flapping, over and over," Allison told them.

Xander was about to ask a question when, with no warning, the head of a zombie in front of him exploded. Then one in front of Luis, and one by Allison, and over the next few seconds seven more, all at the front of the line. And then Xander thought he did hear something. He risked a glance behind them and saw, in the distance, a searchlight was slowly approaching.

"Hold your places!" Xander yelled. "Don't move left or right! Keep sightlines clear!"

"Sightlines?" Sam asked.

"Behind us," Xander replied, his energy increasing. He could almost feel the pain bleeding from his leg as his adrenaline surged. "Cavalry is on the way!"

He saw the heads around him swivel, then return to the problem in front of them. A moment later, heads started blasting apart again.

"God, I love snipers!" Dean yelled.

Within a few minutes the helicopter was approaching the mall, and they were starting to get excited. Even Luis, who hadn't said anything since Erica's death, seemed to be excited.

Soon, the helicopter was hovering above them, the sniper was picking off zombies left and right, and three soldiers descended on zip lines to the roof and started picking off zombies. After a couple of moments, they moved forward far enough and had thinned the herd enough that they the group could take a short break.

Another soldier slid down the line and approached Xander and executed a smart salute.

"Permission to get you guys the hell out of here, sir?"

Xander grinned. "Permission granted. I am so fucking glad to see you, Ri."

Riley nodded. "Time for that in the chopper." He made a hand signal and someone in the chopper rode down to the rooftop a metal basket. "We can take you up one at a time. Where are the rest of your people?"

Xander shook his head. "This is it."

"Six out of twelve?" Riley asked.

Xander nodded. "Two in the last day."

Riley shook his head. "That sucks, but at 50%, you're doing a hell of a lot better than most."

"We got lucky, sort of," Xander said. "The guy who started this whole goddamn thing was holed up here with us, and he was keeping the zombies out for days."

"The guy who started it?" Riley asked. He pointed to Dawn, and the soldier hooked her into the basket and they slowly started their ascent.

Xander nodded. "He's dead now, but we've got pictures of all his writings and everything. I'm hopeful that Dawn, Giles and Willow can come up with… something."

"Giles isn't around," Riley said.

"What? What happened?"

Riley shook his head. "Nothing bad. All travel to and from the continent was shut down about a day before you got the care package. He's fine. He's pulling his hair out with worry, but he's fine."

Xander nodded. The soldier came back from the chopper, and Riley pointed to Allison. The man nodded and moved toward her, when Dean yelled out in pain.

Immediately, Xander and Riley had their guns up, but they were too late. They looked over, and a crippled, but not dead zombie, had dragged itself to the edge and bitten the first thing it came to – Dean's ankle. With the soldiers present, he had gotten complacent, and too comfortable, and this was the result. Dean stabbed it in the head, killing it. Xander could see the blood drain from his face, though, and knew that it had bit through his pants and socks, and gotten to the flesh.

"No," said Sam, dropping to his knee and rolling up Dean's pant leg. The wound there was not severe, but it broke the skin.

"Goddammit!" Xander yelled. He turned his gun on the crowd and wasted five bullets and five zombies.

"It's okay," Dean said, placing his hand on his brother's shoulder. Sam looked up at Dean, tears in his eyes. "It's okay. We all knew this could happen. You guys… you'll make it out, and you'll live long healthy lives. It's okay."

"Like hell it is," Riley said, calmly. He signaled to the soldier who was operating the basket, and the young man called up to the chopper with his radio.

"What?" Xander asked.

Riley smiled at him, and walked over to Dean. "Your life or your leg?"

"What?" Dean asked.

"Choose!" Riley said. "Your life or your leg?"

"Uh…"

"Life!" Sam said, standing up. "His life."

The soldier jogged over and pulled Dean down so he was sitting, then tied a tourniquet under his knee. They helped Dean stand again. The soldier led him to the basket, and Sam moved to follow, but Riley stopped him.

"You've got a cure?" Xander asked.

"Not a cure," he said. "A way to stop the infection from spreading. Do we know his blood type?"

"A-negative," Sam said. "I'm also his type, if that'll help."

Riley shook his head. "We've got a supply up in the chopper." He called the blood type into his radio, and this time the basket came back down empty.

"What are they doing to my brother?" Sam asked.

"Brother, huh? You guys the Winchesters?" Riley asked. Sam nodded. "Heard about you guys. They're going to cut off your brother's leg below the knee. He's lucky it was an ankle bite, any higher and we'd have to take the whole leg."

"What the hell can stop a zombie infection?" Xander asked.

"Slayer's blood, mixed with epinephrine," Riley said. They heard, a moment later, screams of pain coming from the helicopter, and Sam's head snapped up. "Unfortunately, we can't render the patient unconscious initially, it slows the heart too much. He's going to be in a lot of pain for the next five minutes."

"I need to be up there," Sam said.

"In a minute," Riley said. "You don't want to see it."

"But Dawn –"

"Dawn's smart enough to look away," Riley said.

"And a pretty girl is sometimes a better anesthetic than a brother," Xander said. "I imagine especially so in Dean's case."

"What, um…" Sam started. "What are they going to do with the leg?"

Riley frowned. "Usually we just… toss them. Is that… I mean, do you object –"

"Uh, no," Sam said. "Just… warn me?"

Riley nodded and spoke into his radio. When the time came, Sam turned his head, and was spared the sight of a human leg – Dean's leg – spinning out from the helicopter and over the edge of the mall.

The basket lowered, and Sam and Luis hooked themselves into it and rode up to the helicopter. Luis, Xander was happy to see, was trying to keep Sam's spirits up.

"You the guy who sent us the food, right?" Allison asked, walking up to them.

"Allison, this is Riley. Riley, Allison. She's a Slayer."

Riley shook her hand. "Pleasure to meet you, miss." He turned to Xander. "Slayer, huh? I always knew you were a cheater. No wonder you held out."

"I wanted to thank you for the food and supplies," she said. "You saved our asses."

"Glad I can help."

Xander smiled at her. "You take the next trip, Riley's gonna help me up."

Allison nodded and headed back towards the chopper.

"Her dad died today," Xander said. He looked at his watch. "Well, yesterday, I guess."

"A lot of people lost their fathers."

Xander nodded. "How's the world?"

Riley frowned. "I'll leave that for when we get back to camp."

"How's Buffy?"

Riley smiled. "About ready to take my head off for not coming to get you sooner. Sorry about that, by the way. We just couldn't spare the resources until right now."

"I understand," Xander said. "It sucks, but I understand."

Riley nodded and pointed to the basket. "Our ride's here."

Xander smiled at him. "Thanks for coming personally, Riley. It means a lot."

"It's an honor, Xander," he said, smiling. Xander allowed his friend to help him walk over to the basket. He helped secure Xander into the basket.

"I got a few orders to pass out down here," Riley said. He leaned over and pushed a button, sending the basket back up to the chopper.

As the basket rose to the chopper, he heard Riley shouting some commands. A few seconds later, the helicopter blades drowned out everything, but he saw some explosions in the mass of zombies. Allison helped him into the chopper, where Sam was sitting next to his brother, who was mercifully unconscious, and whose right leg was missing below the knee. The floor of the helicopter was damp in places where they'd washed out the blood. It smelled heavily of ammonia. Xander was careful not to slip. He hobbled over and sat next to Dawn and watched the basket return to the roof.

And for the first time in thirteen days, he relaxed.

* * *

The helicopter landed roughly, jolting Xander out of a nap he hadn't realized he was taking. A group of medics was waiting for them. About half of them took Dean on a stretcher off to a tent, and the rest took the group aside for a quick check-up. The medics took them, individually, into a tent and had each of them strip, to check them over for bites.

An hour later, showered and cleanly clothed, they were reunited in a tent that looked like it was used for military briefings. After they waited for a few minutes, Riley showed up.

"Okay," he said, "I don't have much time, but Xander and Dawn are friends, so I wanted to personally tell you guys what's going to happen. In about an hour, we're going to chopper you out to Detroit, and you're going to board a jet. It's gonna fly you west, I'm not sure exactly where. Oregon, maybe, or possibly Northern California. You'll find out once you're there.

"Once you get wherever you're going, they're going to be splitting everyone up into groups based on skill sets. Now you guys know each other, so if you want, I can have them keep you together as a group." Riley looked at them.

They all looked at each other, and nodded.

"Yeah," Xander said. "We'd like that."

"Oh…" Riley started. "Actually… I just meant them. You and Dawn aren't leaving yet."

"No?"

Riley shook his head. "Buffy should be back within a couple of hours. She and a few other Slayers are off on a mission right now. Anyway, you're not headed to the same place they are."

"Why not?" Dawn asked.

"Because some of these decisions are made above my pay grade," Riley said. "This one, I have no control over. You guys are headed for San Diego."

"And they can't come with?" Xander asked.

Riley shook his head. "Sorry. They tell me there's no room on your plane. If you want to try to keep in touch, I can find out where they're going, but that's about it."

"I'd like that," Xander said.

Riley nodded. "Sam, your brother will be going with you, of course. Actually, with him in your group, you guys should get a pretty sweet gig."

"You say that," Sam said, "you're not the one who's gonna have to race him over an obstacle course."

The others laughed, and Riley knew he was missing something. That was okay, though. They'd all been through something together that he hadn't.

A large black man wearing BDU's walked into the tent and nodded to Riley.

"Okay," Riley said. "Sergeant Doakes here is going to take the rest of you guys to the mess tent. Food and drinks, have as much as you want. Sam, if you'd like to check on your brother, the sergeant can take you to him."

"Thanks," Sam said. Sam, Luis and Allison shook Riley's hand and followed the sergeant out of the tent, and Xander immediately turned to Riley.

"How bad is it?"

Riley licked his lips and led them out of the tent. "It's bad. Really bad. We took too long getting organized, and had too much trouble clearing Slayers for transport into the US. Slayers and all sorts of other mystical people, really. Willow's witches had the damnedest time getting here. She's also fine, by the way."

"I know," Xander said.

Riley cocked his head. "How?"

Xander shrugged. "I'd know if she wasn't."

Riley shook his head, but didn't press further. "Anyway. She's in Texas assisting a group we've got there. They're trying to hold the Rio Grande, stop these guys from spreading."

He led them into yet another tent, the main feature of which was a map of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Huge swaths of the map were covered in red, with little pockets here and there of white. There was a rough separation line at the Rocky Mountains, at the Mexican Border, and, in the South, along the Appalachian Mountains, though that had started to bleed a bit.

Riley nodded to a young man in the tent, and said "Cincinnati."

The man nodded, picked up a red marker and colored over the city.

"This is what they've taken?" Dawn asked. "This is where… zombies are in control?"

"Yes," said Riley. "The small white dots are areas where we know there are, or were, people holding out. I'm sure a number have fallen, but there are also a lot who are doing pretty good."

For the next hour, Riley explained the situation to them, with frequent interruptions from subordinates. He explained supply lines, from food to fuel to ammunition and construction materials. He showed them force allocations, weak points and points that could hold with minimal support for extended periods of time.

"I don't understand," Dawn said, interrupting Riley while he was talking about troop movements.

"Which part?" he asked.

"The whole thing," Dawn said. "I mean, I understand what you're saying, all the specifics, all the… everything. I don't understand why."

Riley frowned. A young man entered the tent and handed Riley a small piece of paper. He nodded at the man, and stood up. "The long and short of it is this," he said. "America as we knew it is gone. It's been overrun with the undead, and our people were trying to run, but have nowhere to go. We've got forces fighting, but we lack leadership who knows what the hell they're talking about, leadership with real experience.

"You guys are going to San Diego because that's where operations are going to be run from. You're going for your expertise, and my job, in the short time I've got you, is to get you up to speed." He held up a hand to delay their questions. "Excuse me, for just one minute."

Riley stepped out of the tent, and Dawn and Xander looked at each other.

Xander nodded, and Dawn said what they were both thinking.

"I have to pee."

* * *

Buffy Summers hopped out of the cab of the 5-ton truck she was riding in. She looked up and saw Riley Finn standing in the beams of the headlights, his fists against his hips and his elbows spread wide, like a superhero. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Never gets old, Ri," she said. "For you."

Riley smiled and approached her. He brushed some blood matted hair away from her forehead. "You're cut," he said.

"I'll be fine in the morning."

Riley nodded. "Listen, I know you're tired," he said, eliciting a groan from her.

"Jesus, Riley, we've been on the go for the last twenty hours. I know I'm a slayer, but even we need some sleep! Hell, Brandi nearly fell asleep at the wheel. And how bad would that be, if we crashed and ruined all your pretty explosives?"

"Full haul?" he asked.

Buffy rolled her eyes again. "Yeah, as full as we could get it."

"Well," he said. "As I said, I know you're tired, but there's one last thing I need you to look at in the command center. I promise, this will be the last time I do this to you."

Buffy sighed and let her shoulders droop.

"Fine," she said. "Let's get it over with."

Riley led her to the command center tent and swept back the flaps dramatically.

He deflated a little as Buffy looked at him oddly and walked inside.

"Okay," she said. "What's this thing I need to –"

"Hey Riley," Xander said, hobbling into the tent. "You guys really need to –"

Buffy cut him off mid sentence by tackling him to the ground, smothering him with kisses and demanding promises of never being apart like that ever again – promises he had no time to make with her attentions.

After almost a minute of this, she finally rolled off of him and frowned at his arm and leg. She was about to ask what happened to him when Dawn poked her head in.

"Is it safe?" she asked, only to have a Buffy-shaped rocket launch itself at her as well.

"Safe from what?" Xander asked as Riley helped him up off the floor.

"Seeing the two of you get it on right here, I would imagine," Riley said.

As soon as she was done mugging her sister, Buffy accepted Riley's help up as well, then picked her sister up off the floor. She stood between them, her arms hooked between theirs, beaming at Riley.

"Okay," Riley said, glancing at his watch. "Your plane doesn't leave for another five hours or so, why don't you guys grab some shuteye."

"Plane?" Buffy asked.

"You didn't tell her?" Xander asked.

Riley shook his head. "Feel welcome to take that job from me, though, since I get to give people good news all the time."

"I will, thanks," Xander said, ignoring the sarcasm. He turned to Buffy and smiled. "We're going to San Diego."

"We? As in all of us?" she asked.

Xander nodded. He turned back to Riley. "When are you joining us?"

Riley smiled. "I um. I'm not, actually."

"What? I thought you said –"

"I said it's for people who are going to lead. Lead the people. I'm a leader of soldiers, not civilians."

"But you could –" Dawn started.

Riley shook his head. He pointed to the map. "We've targeted about two dozen locations across the country. Places that are easy to hold. A couple dozen men, a lot of ammunition, food supplies, and these are places that could hold out for years."

"Oh my God," Buffy said.

Riley continued, ignoring her. "We um. We've figured out that the zombies are attracted by both scent and sound. So we take these places, places that are already full of people, and we make as much noise as we can. We go out at all hours of the day and draw them to us."

"But that's a death sentence," Xander said. "For anyone in there, people can't sustain that for that long it's –"

"It's so that our society can live on," Riley said. "We're the distraction. We keep them away from you guys so you can rebuild, re-arm, retool and come in and save our asses. We're counting on you guys – everyone who's getting out – you have to grow food, make weapons, you have to… you have to produce so much that you could gorge yourselves, because we're counting on you to keep us alive. To give us hope."

"Other countries could –"

"They're not," Riley said. "We have no evidence a zombie could survive a trip across the ocean. At the moment, this is seen as an American problem. Mexico has lined up their army on the border, with orders to shoot on sight anyone trying to cross. Canada… well, they're just as fucked as we are, really. Giles is doing what he can, but the last I heard, even Downing Street wasn't listening. And if they won't support us…." He shook his head.

"There are a lot of countries out there that don't like us, and a lot of people who think we deserve this. But we're going to survive this, and you guys are going to make that happen. And you're going to come in and you're going to save us," he said, swallowing hard, his eyes damp. "Because I don't want to die. Not like this. Not like your friend's girlfriend, or that girl Allison's dad. And not like –. Not like my Sam did, either."

Buffy felt Xander grab her arm, looked at him and shook her head. It was the first she'd heard of Sam's death.

Riley sniffed a little and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "So you guys have to make it work, okay? You just… you have to."

Xander placed his hand on Riley's shoulder. "We will."

Buffy took Riley's hand in hers and squeezed gently. He looked down at her hand, and then into her eyes. "Faith," she said.

Riley nodded.

"Faith?" Dawn asked.

Buffy licked her lips. "Faith's been running around the country and coming back with pages and pages of notes. She never told me what she was doing."

"She was doing recon for us. She volunteered. She's actually going to be on my team. For about the last week, she's had the priority on gas rations."

"Where are you guys going to be?" Dawn asked.

Riley pointed to a little white spot outside Atlanta. "My own private Alamo," he said.

"Don't say that," Xander said.

"Why not? A small group of people holding out in a small fort, massively outnumbered by a group that can just send wave after wave after wave…"

"And everyone there died," Xander said. Riley said nothing.

"Hey," Xander said, shaking Riley's shoulder. Riley turned and looked at him. "We're gonna come for you. We're going to beat these monsters, and we're going to come for you. We're Scoobies, and we take care of our own."

Dawn stepped up to him. "And that includes you."

Riley swallowed and nodded. "Come on," he said. "Let me show you to your bunks."

They stepped out of the tent, Riley and Buffy walking a little ahead of Dawn and Xander.

"Why us?" Buffy asked.

"Why you what?"

"You said we're picked to be leaders. Why us? Why not Giles or Willow, or… anyone else?"

"Willow's on the list," Riley said. "But they've deemed that, at the moment, she's too valuable in the field. Also, they're a little afraid of her."

"They who?"

Riley shrugged. "The ones who make the decisions. The ones who tell me what to do. You know. 'They.'"

Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, Giles was on the list, but we can't get to him. And you guys, well… your name carries a lot of weight, Buffy. The people who know, know who you are and what you've done. And they respect that."

"They didn't see me the last year or two in Sunnydale."

"No, but your friends did. And they stuck around."

"And what about them?" she asked, nodding at Dawn and Xander. "Why do they get a golden ticket?"

"They thought you wouldn't cooperate if Dawn wasn't either with you or evacuated somewhere safe. And Xander… he keeps you grounded. More than anyone else, he keeps you connected to the world. Lets you remember what you're fighting for. Always has."

"'They' think that?" Buffy asked.

Riley shook his head. "No, I do."

Buffy slid her arm into his and leaned her head on his shoulder. "We won't leave you out there. You're one of us."

Riley stepped up to a tent in a remote section of the camp and pulled back the flap. "The Hotel Finn," he said. "Your plane leaves in about five hours. I'll come get you when it's time."

Buffy gave him a hug and stepped into the tent. Xander patted him on the shoulder and stepped in as well. Dawn stepped up, and Riley dropped the tent flap.

"Not you," he said. He draped his arm over her shoulder. "You don't want to be in there tonight."

Buffy smiled at Xander and leaned up to kiss him, and sighed contentedly as he wrapped his arms around her. "So really," she heard Dawn say as Riley led her away from the tent. "Why did you think I'd find that banana thing funny?"

* * *

The End


End file.
